Speaker wannabe Jim Jordan’s office has announced that Jordan will take to his “bully pulpit” at an 8 AM news conference in the Rayburn room of the Capitol this morning in the newest, but probably not the last, effort to convince the recalcitrant twenty opposed to his elevation to the House Speakership to change their votes ahead of a presumed third ballot later today.
“After failing multiple times to get enough votes to secure a role as House speaker, Jim Jordan announced he was dropping out of the race. But that didn’t last long. He soon changed his mind, and now reports suggest he’s going to pressure his fellow lawmakers using a Friday morning press conference.
Jordan, who lost two votes and then held a reportedly unproductive meeting with those opposing him, is reportedly not giving up.
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, where Jordan is chairman, announced the presser on its social media.
Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) will hold a press conference tomorrow morning, Friday, October 20, 2023, at 8:00 a.m. ET in the Rayburn Room of the U.S. Capitol,” the committee announced.”
First of all I find his pulling out from the history book Teddy Roosevelt’s famous description of the Presidency rather amusing, as the bullying tactics of the last couple of days seem to have hardened, not lessened, the resolve of his detractors.
As you know from here and elsewhere, those aligned against him and his the will of his master Trump have received vile and profanity infused death threats via texts and phone messages since the first Speakership ballot revealed that there are more than enough votes to scuttle Trump’s fervent desire to have a servile House Speaker in place as soon as possible. This is imperative to his plan to defund the government and crash the economy and, longer term, to overturn the results of the 2024 elections, which he knows in his black heart he will lose unless his man Jordan is in place to throw wrenches into the works.
Secondly, although Jordan is an inept and thoroughly despicable little traitor, I don’t think issuing death treats to his fellow house members and their families is in his little bag of tricks.
As a matter of fact, Jordan was willing to step back from his humiliating quest for the golden ring yesterday afternoon until something, or someone, changed his mind.
Some attribute this dizzying double take to his meeting with the the MAGA Congress critters after the second vote yesterday, who urged him to battle on despite the long odds of success, but I believe that there there was a much more compelling reason for his change of heart.
Just a day after complaining that the New York State fraud trial was keeping him from campaigning in Iowa, Trump was spotted yesterday afternoon swinging a golf club at his Doral country club in Florida.
He was probably in the area of the thirteenth hole when he opened his phone and got wind of Jordan trying to escape more humiliation by empowering Speaker designate Patrick McHenry and going somewhere for a couple of months to lick his wounds in peace.
But that plan would not fit in to Trump’s campaign objective to cause as pain and suffering to voters before next November and starting that fiendish plan as soon as possible, with newly elected Speaker Jordan refusing to raise the debt limit and crashing the U.S. economy.
And that is most likely where Trump’s reptilian brain screamed out that his plan to win the Presidency and keep him from going to jail was in danger, so, as the cartoon up top implies, he called Jordan and either gave him a virtual ass whooping or kicking.
As a real bully would do.
We can only hope Jordan’s detractors in the House hold firm the line after what was probably a very long nite of hanging up on, and deleting texts from, Trump’s rabid cultists.
Because death threats resulting in a change of one’s vote is no way to run a democracy.
I think it’s about time to correct the misapprehension as to what a ‘bully pulpit’ is.
As used originally by Teddy Roosevelt, it means ‘great’ (as in ‘bully for you’). It did NOT mean somewhere to denigrate or attackj others – just a great place to get the word across.
“In the past, in American culture, the term has been used differently, as an exclamation/exhortation, in particular famously associated with Theodore Roosevelt and continuing to the present in the bully pulpit, Roosevelt’s coining and also as faint/deprecating praise (“bully for him”). ” (wikipedia)
“an important public position from which a person can let other people know his or her opinions on particular subjects:
‘He intends to use his bully pulpit as state superintendent to bring attention to the issue.’
‘Over and over, he made use of the bully pulpit of the presidency, telling Americans he was doing the job they had elected him to do.'” (Webster)
That is absolutely correct… the bully pulpit was always understood to be “an important public position from which a person in authority can let other people know his or her opinions on particular subjects. ‘
The bully pulpit only became “somewhere to denigrate or attack others” under the regime of DON THE CON T. RUMP.
Given enough threats, these weak-willed hold outs will cave in. They are afraid for themselves and their families. They probably cannot (will not) spend the money on security for the long term. They.will.cave. Gymbag will be the next speaker.
I read somewhere, that the Heritage Foundation was also part of the pressure campaign. I think it is part of their legislator scorecards, where they presumably track voting records and make them public. I don’t know how much impact they would have, but I assume they may have changed some minds.
Making voting records on this fiasco public could help ‘pubes in districts that went for Biden. If, that is, they vote against gym bag.
“…a very long nite of hanging up on, and deleting texts from, Trump’s rabid cultists…”
The truly frightening thing about all this is that it is no longer “indirect” threats from ‘rabid cultists.’ They are now signing their names to their threats! Hi, this is Stephanie from the Hannity Show, etc.
The only good news I see is that Gym-bag’s dirty tricks are getting aired in MSM. Finally calling him the little scumbag he really is, the stuff “we’ve” known all along but most non-political-junkie-types don’t.
If our troops had the same amount of courage and commitment that the gop has, then Hitler would have easily taken over the world. FACT. We are facing fascism on our soil due to a death cult! America…are you willing to sacrifice your children so the Koch brothers can run the government into oblivion? VOTE DEMOCRATIC!! By the way Mr. West took money from right wing Harlan Crowe. He’s a fraud as is Mr Kennedy. Smarten up or be prepared to have NO FUTURE VOTE, and NO PLANET TO LIVE ON!!! ITS A GODDAMN FACT!!!!
IF had REAL journalists from REAL news outlets they’d would tell gym bag to pack sand. It isn’t as if there is anything that could come out of that sewage hole that would be actual news. Nothing press-worthy. Never has been, never will be.
Well, somewhere in there they held a secret anonymous vote. Off camera, of course. They won’t do that again because Jordan set a new record. I guess that’s where the I’ll talk to the holdouts comes in. If I was part of that twenty something I sure as hell wouldn’t walk to my car late at night by myself unless I was carrying a Glock and extra clips. I seen some mention of the republicans intelligence. Well, might as well clear that up right now. They have none. I mean I’ve seen animals with more intelligence. It’s like that clown that’s auditioning for a Democrat campaign ad. These clowns just don’t get it. I guess they think that Democrats don’t have TVs and such since they were extolling Jim Jordan’s virtues about how he wants to end Medicare. Well actually he wants to end all social services programs. Now I do find this somewhat odd since they said in a polite way that Jordan is actually mostly living on his salary with his little childhood sweetheart Polly and some rug rats. Jimmy is in the neighborhood of 60 so what does he think he’s going to do. Be a representative till he croaks. Then again with this speaker thing, J6 and all that goes with it. And my favorite. George Clooney is doing a documentary on the Ohio sex scandle. Yep, if you have caught the team captain going off because Jordan won’t stop calling him. There’s a whole new one out with him. I’m willing to put up twenty bucks that says Jordan doesn’t make it to another term. I might be wrong but I don’t think so. I would say that little Jimmie took his finger out of the hole in the dyke. Oh he stuck it back in real quick but you know that hole had already gotten bigger. And no matter how Jimmie tried to cover it up it just kept coming.