“He who troubleth in his own house shall inherit the wind.” — Proverbs 11:29
Remember the olden days, when the Freedom Caucus was the far-right lane of the GOP and it didn’t get any weirder than that? Those days are gone. Now MAGA is the far-right parameter and the old Freedom Caucus head, Andy Biggs, intends that MAGA should be running the House come January, with him holding the gavel. And the fact is, if Biggs manages to peel more than four votes away from McCarthy, things could get strange and fast. Huffington Post:
“People are thrilled that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s reign of Leftist extremism is ending. The question is whether we will be treated to the status quo that will move us along the same path, though perhaps more slowly,” Biggs wrote in a piece for the right-wing Daily Caller. “Will we elect an establishment Republican as the speaker — think [former House Speaker] Paul Ryan, or in this case, Ryan’s right-hand man, Kevin McCarthy.”
Biggs, the former leader of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, has virtually no shot at becoming speaker. But hard-liners still need an instigator, and Biggs risks creating a big mess for Republicans in the new Congress if he manages to peel away more than four votes from McCarthy. Biggs argued in his piece that the “conservative movement” has a rare opportunity to “change the direction of the nation” with the election of a new House speaker who isn’t McCarthy.
“We actually have the opportunity to dislodge the establishment and reinvigorate the America First movement that was founded by former President Donald Trump,” Biggs wrote. “Yes, that Donald Trump.”
Biggs is one of five Republican defectors opposing McCarthy’s bid for the gavel, including Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.). McCarthy needs 218 votes from a slim House majority to become speaker.
As House minority leader, McCarthy has carefully wooed the right in the hopes of one day leading fractious House Republicans — and it’s paid off, mostly. His influential backers include Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), as well as conservative radio host Mark Levin and former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. But the five holdouts could still make life challenging for Republicans during the floor vote for speaker next month.
A House divided against itself cannot stand. The GOP has a razor thin majority, as the Democrats have had, but the Democrats weren’t slinging mud at one another and wrestling for the Speaker’s gavel.
If this was any normal iteration of the House, the conclusion would be that the majority party would have trouble passing their legislation. This iteration of the GOP has no legislation to pass. What they’re going to do is stage political theater.
The Cult of Trump is alive and well.
SOS………..more RW BS from the Trump, the Nazi imbecile “who would be King” & hold-over MOB of Capital Traitors! What a s..tshow, the RW has become!
Missing in that tripe from Biggs: how many votes he actually has locked up. Remember that he needs to hit 218 to get the gavel (read: the majority of his caucus) and he’s a lot more likely to get less than McCarthy’s 188 guaranteed. The possibility of a Dem inside straight remains.
I don’t think there’s any rule allowing a plurality win. Has to be a straight majority. Seems possible they will be trying to run the House without a Speaker in the chair, which could get really entertaining.
Bare, what do you mean a Dem “inside straight”? You mean like a Dem being voted speaker? Nah, it’ll never happen. The far more likely scenario is they choose someone after months or weeks of wrangling, and that person lasts a few weeks, and then they choose someone else, and that person l;asts a few weeks/months, and so on til 2024. Either way, it’ll be a total shit show. Will Repub voters learn anything from this? Absolutely NO! If you still vote Repub now, it is because they are your tribe and you are not interested in any other metric. We are fucked for a long time, alas.