We are going to see who’s running the Republican lunatic asylum, once known as the Grand Old Party, in short order here. Will Steve Scalise be elected Speaker or will Jim Jordan? Because if it’s Scalise, then that will signal that the GOP is going to try to salvage something out of the wreck that it has become. And if it’s Jordan, that will signal that the GOP, also known as the Trumptanic, has simply decided to give up and sink to the bottom. Liz Cheney shared an insight into Jordan.
Traitors want to be House Speaker. Donald Trump shared nuclear secrets. @Liz_Cheney said, 'Jim Jordan knew more about what Donald Trump had planned for January 6th than any other member of the House of Representatives.' #TrumpIsATraitor.pic.twitter.com/FAofG9DYBB
— Tony – Resistance (@TonyHussein4) October 6, 2023
True enough. And that’s only one reason that Jordan shouldn’t be elected Speaker. Michael Tomasky, the New Republic:
Jordan would be a disaster as speaker. He’d be a disaster for the country, which is bad, but actually I don’t think he could really do that much damage, with Democrats holding the Senate and a Democrat in the White House. No—the real disaster would be for the Republican Party. So while I’m not—let me be clear—exactly cheering on this outcome, I certainly see some big, bright silver linings.
Why? Let us count the ways. First, speakers traditionally work their way up, slowly building relationships, doing favors, raising money. Jordan has surely done some of that, but it’s not his real calling card. His real calling card is that he’s a right-wing media star who has made himself memorable and notable with his obnoxious sneer, his wild rhetoric and charges, his sportscoat-less swagger at committee hearings, and the like. I’m obviously not a GOP House caucus insider, but I’d be shocked if he’s bothered to build relationships beyond those that have been useful to him.
Second, he has zero, and I mean zero, relationships with Democrats. Kevin McCarthy didn’t have many either, but that just proves my point, because look what happened to him: If he’d bothered to build some relationships across the aisle, a handful of Democrats would have voted “present” this week, and he’d still be speaker. The House minority is pretty powerless, but it isn’t completely powerless. There are times when the speaker has to cut a deal with the minority leader. Do you see Jim Jordan doing that?
Third, does he have any kind of relationship with Mitch McConnell? Jordan said this week it’s “fine” and “good.” Um … sure. McConnell has done his share to burn down the Senate, Lord knows, but compared to people like Jordan, he’s Arthur Vandenberg. Cynical and slippery though he is, McConnell at least believes in a kind of old-school decorum that Jordan has utterly rejected. They’re stylistically polar opposites. And then there’s Ukraine aid, which McConnell backs and Jordan staunchly opposes.
Fourth, he’s going to make promises about cutting spending that he won’t be able to keep. This in no small part is what brought down the last three Republican speakers—they talked a big game about shrinking government, but they didn’t deliver because they were fundamentally lying. When Republicans say, “We’re going to cut government,” they mean domestic discretionary spending, which is less than 15 percent of the budget. Drastic cuts to those programs are unpopular, so there just isn’t that much to cut. Speaker Jordan will bump up against this reality just as Speakers Boehner, Ryan, and McCarthy did.
Fifth, what did Jordan know about January 6? Liz Cheney just said that Jordan “knew more” about Trump’s January 6 plans “than any other” member of Congress. “Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election,” she said in a speech in Minnesota. If he becomes speaker and Democrats are doing their job, they’ll say “Jim Jordan” and “January 6” with the frequency that Rudy Giuliani used to say “9/11.” The only coup against the United States ever led by one of its major political parties will hang like stink on the GOP.
And don’t forget the sixth one. Cast your mind back to the mists of June, when the Supreme Court ruled that a lawsuit against Ohio State University, brought by former athletes in the wrestling program who accused a university doctor of serial sexual abuse, could move forward. Jim Jordan will be be asked questions and probably deposed when this case goes forward. Now this situation could end up being identical to the issue that Liz Cheney raised, which is, if Jordan knew then why didn’t he say anything?
Jordan lacks character. Cheney has pointed it out with respect to January 6 and it may be proven in a court of law, if it’s established that Jordan knew about the abuse of young athletes and did nothing. So is this the kind of a person you want leading the House and the party?
Maybe it is. If Jordan’s elected, then that will be a defining moment for the GOP. It will be the party saying, “The right-wing crazies have taken over. I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together — nuts.” That will be the message they send. And send it they may. Let’s see what this week brings. It might be even loonier than last week and that’s saying something in a week where history was made by the first Speaker, ever, being toppled, while Donald Trump got a gag order issued (also a first) and dropped a lawsuit against his former lawyer, while it was revealed that he discussed the details of nuclear submarines to somebody who had no business knowing about such things.
But the Republicans may bottom that in days to come. Yes, they very well may. Because we keep thinking they’ve hit bottom and all they do is keep taking us to new sub-basements of politics that we never knew were there.
And consider this:
Serious question – Jim Jordan was VERY close to the January 6 insurrectionists. Cheney said he knew more than anyone what was going on.
He talked about pardons but (apparently) never requested one.
If the DOJ indicts him, won't he be disqualified?
Is he a safe bet?— GoldenCrossMin (@GoldenCrossMin) October 6, 2023
This could get totally wild. Let’s see what the Republicans do.
Didn’t he break the law like Navarro by defying a congressional subpoena? Why no charges about that or his role in January 6th? Drag him into court, and charge him!!!! He loves to threaten others on his FABRICATED charges, then follow through on HIS REAL CONDUCT. GODDAMN weak kneed people in authority, afraid to use the same rules against the well connected the way they DO AGAINST THE REST OF US!!!
Another point about the old repub song “we’ve got to cut spending and balance the budget”- they only say this when a democrat is in the White House. Amazing their constituents haven’t figured that out yet, or maybe they have and they’re just happy to “own the libs.”
And when they take over, their prime objective is tax cuts for their wealthy (d)owners, thereby running up the deficit. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Sorry Liz but the GOP is already dead and has been for a good while now. Let me lay it out. Bush 43 did enough damage to put the Grand Old Party into the ICU, and on life support? Think I’m kidding? Baby Bush became so personae non grata he was unofficially banned from McCain’s and future GOP conventions! Like Voldemort in the Harry Potter stuff people in that world didn’t even want to speak his name. Then McConnell became, except for the brief period when Romney was the nominee in 2012 the head of the Party. He wound up turning off the life support machine with his antics. But as sometimes happens the “patient” doesn’t always die right away. In rare instances they can linger on for a good while. But Trump came along and said “f**k that” and drove a stake through the heart of the old GOP. With a combination of enthusiastic support and fearful acquiescence. And for good measure, like Van Helsing in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula cut off the head and stuffed the mouth with garlic.
The GOP Liz Cheney speaks of, the one where her father and to a large degree she once held so much sway is long, long gone. From where I sit it can’t be revived like some character that keeps returning from the dead like in those teen slasher movie series. Nope. The old-guard is going to have to accept a cycle or two of Democrats taking a LOT of power (and undoing much of the damage the GOP including so many in that old-guard) wrought over the decades and build something brand new. MAGAs would be outraged of course but they’d become marginalized. And while as I said it would take a while for it to sink in that they simply can’t win or even have enough influence to exert any significant power they will slink back to being the old crazies the GOP banked on prior to Trump.
I don’t have much faith in that happening but hell, you never know.
Denis, many of us think you’re right.
Yes, the MAGAts will be enraged by Dem policies, because FAUX tells them they should be.
However, once those policies take effect, and they forget the origins, they will fight to keep them.
Case in point, Social Security and Medicare / Medicaid.
The end of the current GOP would be a mercy killing
It will have to be done at the ballot box. The democrats have MORE THAN ENOUGH material to shout about their successes under Biden, AND keep pointing out the gop is a fascist party, denying the truth, promoting nazi values, and calling for a violent overthrow of our democracy. They need to wake the majority, and stir them to the voting booth. This is a war that has to be won.
One of the main problems, though, is getting that point to be heard by the people who need to hear the stuff. And when you’ve got dark money organizations slamming the Democrats EVERYWHERE and the Dems are largely unable to access many of those same outlets because they’re exempt from any notion of equal access. Look at, for instance, Fox “News” and the rest of the right-wing media. These “channels” aren’t considered “public airwaves” so they can simply refuse to air commercials that don’t line up with their own “values.” Or take social media. Despite the alleged steps that Facebook and Twitter/X claim to have taken to stop the bots, there’s simply no proof that there’s been any real headway in stopping false information (much less outright disinformation) from gaining traction–we won’t really see anything major until next year in the middle of the election and once a bot has unleashed its misinformation, it can be seen by tens of millions of users before it gets reported, especially if the material’s been “targeted” to “like-minded” people. Even then, there’s no guarantee the platform will do anything to stop it (we’ve already seen how Musk, instead of arguing that Twitter/X isn’t being used to spread anti-Semitic content, has chosen instead to sue the group that issued the report exposing the spread–and there’s plenty of proof that some of the content remained on the platform MONTHS after having first been reported to “moderators”).