I think that the bloom is finally off of the rotting rose. For more than seven long years now we’ve heard about the iron grip that Traitor Tot has on the Republican party. Yeah sure, right. If you consider 32% of the GOP base, consisting of delusional mouth breathers an iron grip, knock your socks off.
But the problem with that misconception is that almost the entire GOP caucus, House and Senate, went out of their way to help create that illusion. In the House, the ultra MAGA Freedom caucus rampaged through the place like a rogue Jamaican posse, and even in the Senate, men and women who actually graduated high school meekly kept their mouths shut and bovinely submitted. Why would anybody think anything different?
But it appears that at long last, in the ultra MAGA House of all places, scales have fallen from eyes. Late night on January 6th, then House Minority Leader Cave-In McCarthy condemned Trump for the violence, only to belly crawl down to Mar-A-Lago six days later to kiss the imperial ring, and the orangutan ass to get back in good graces. Most GOP House members simply laid low to avoid an often repeated promise of a primary from the right. Trump’s interference cost the House a solid majority in the 2022 midterms, and actually lost them another seat in the Senate. But nobody wanted to be unemployed.
Let’s be clear, Matt Gaetz would have never have moved against Squeaker Cave-In McCarthy without Traitor Tot’s blessing. McCarthy was His Lowness’s whipped dog. And you’ll notice that FrankenTrump never said a word of support for McCarthy when the sh*tstorm started. He was done with McCarthy.
And now McCarthy is gone, and they need a new Speaker. And just like Old Frothing Schloss, The stale pale ale with the foam on the bottom, two names quickly rose to the top of the foam. Steve Scalise, and House MAGA Trump whisperer Jim Jordan. Trump’s response was almost immediate, he backed Jordan. Up until this moment, this would be the blessed touch of success.
They held the vote today, and guess what? Jordan lost to Scalise by the tally of 113-99. The Trump magic spell has been broken in the House. And you know why? It was a freakin’ secret ballot! El Pendejo Presidente has no way to find out who betrayed him. All he knows for sure is that it cost his trusted lieutenant a shot to become his surrogate Speaker. For which he will be mightily pissed.
But here’s the McGuffin. Gaetz, Trump’s loyal House butt boy is running this show. But when the names submitted for the Speakership began to shake out, Gaetz realized that the bombastic, overly theatrical Jordan didn’t have the support to be Speaker. So, rather than risk an endless vote-o-rama of Jordan failures on the floor, Gaetz slickly called for a secret ballot on the nominations, keeping his slimy fingers clean, and giving his caucus cover to vote their consciences, what they have of them.
If The Cheeto Prophet still had an iron grip on the party, Gaetz would never have tried such a lame ass stunt. But he knows that Trump is distracted by four separate indictments, totaling some 91 charges, at least one of which will come to trial before election day of 2024. Trump is toxic to the party.
And Gaetz’s personal ass is on the line here. It was Gaetz who personally engineered the downfall of McCarthy out of personal pique. And everybody knows it. McCarthy actually bought Gaetz some time in falling on his sword with the short term continuing resolution, but nowhere near enough. And now the pressure is really on with the Hamas attack on Israel while there’s no Speaker of the House.
Did I mention that Florida has the third highest concentration of Jewish voters after California and New York? And tons of them live in Gaetz’s supposedly safely gerrymandered district. If this gets f*cked up, Gaetz is going to be held personally responsible, and he’ll almost certainly face a primary from the right, Trump or no Trump. Even worse, a Democratic Jew in the general election, if he survives the primary.
Bratty Matty Gaetz just set the template. If a trusted Trump loyalist can put self preservation over fealty to Trump, then so can everybody else. And they all already get that. That’s why Jordan got clocked out of what he thinks should be his rightful inheritance. Oh, they’ll keep on making the appropriate moo-moo noises to Trump, but from now on it’s every man for himself. Sic Transit Trump.
113 to 99 doesn’t sound like the 218 the speaker would need. Will there be a full house vote? How does Scalise get the gavel without a full house, or at least all available members present, vote?
He doesn’t until he gets 218 vote on a floor vote…This is gonna be McCarthy all over again…
I listened to NPR this A.M. and found out this is just the first vote to provide the candidate. Between P.Z. and NPR, I am re-learning much of what I forgot from my U.S. Government course I took in college. Been awhile since I took it.
…or worse… Anyone want to sing along to “99 votes for the next House Speaker”?
That vote was just for the person nominated to run for the Speaker seat. Now the REAL vote begins and I agree, how is he going to get 217 votes. What a Halloween clown show.
Can we all imagine how bad those Trump lackies would lose if it was a secret vote every time? We’d just get our country back from the tangerine man. Make no mistake, they all know what he is. They just don’t have the spines to show their Tangerine man’s cult at home that they do, they may lose a vote or two. If they’d all had a spine during the impeachments, we wouldn’t have had to go through all of this, and neither would they have.