It is said Diogenes of Sinope carried his lantern searching for an honest man. It was actually a bit more complex than that but the simple version we all were taught when we were young suffices, especially right now as the U.S. House of Representatives has now gone three weeks without a Speaker. Ole Diogenes had an easy task compared to what House Republicans face.
It’s been three weeks now since the House ground to a halt. Three weeks in which a LOT has needed urgent attention. Things like the fact in less than a month our govt. again faces a shutdown unless a budget or at least another Continuing Resolution (to keep it open) is passed. Aid for Ukraine. Aid for Israel. Not to mention all the other business that the House can’t conduct because a handful of Free-Dumb Caucus members led by Matt Gaetz got pissy and got Speaker Kevin McCarthy canned.
The McCarthy as Speaker era ended as it began, a not at all entertaining circus that left everyone wanting a refund. The circus we’ve had since it even worse. The “management”, in this case the relative handful of Freedom Caucus members of the House have demands for whomever will be the new “Ring Master” but they can’t even agree on that! So we’ve seen them drag the entire House GOP (and our country) through two round of ritual self-humiliation in an attempt to elect a new Speaker. We are into round three since round two ended with Gym Jordan giving up his sudden and unexpected dream of wielding the gavel. At least we can be thankful for that particular dream failing but it still leaves us with the problem of the GOP being unable to pick a leader.
Since they can’t get THEIR act together, they’ve of course blamed Democrats for their own mess. Funny, but I seem to recall not that long ago House Democrats had the EXACT same slim majority Republicans now have, and even some internal debate about leadership. Progressives looked at an aging leadership team and had long chafed at what they felt was too much of moderates giving in to GOP demands without putting up a fight. Yet they got together, worked things out and got a helluva lot done. Including some big stuff with some actual bi-partisan vote totals!
Anyway, as this article from USA Today indicates House Republicans are into their third attempt to select a Speaker. By Sunday a total of nine men (no women, which tells you something not good about the GOP) had put their names forward. All are election deniers. Ok, so a couple voted to certify the results but they DID sign an amicus brief to SCOTUS that tried to overturn the results. Many have said Tom Emmer who is already high up in leadership is the best candidate but Trump doesn’t like him. Apparently Emmer hasn’t been sufficiently worshipful so Trump has been working the process behind the scenes to kill his candidacy. No candidate can afford to lose more than a few votes (literally) so that’s a problem for Emmer. But let’s move on.
The linked article lays things out bluntly:
The key question for any of the nine candidates is whether they can shore up enough support within the House Republican conference to be crowned speaker. The GOP controls the House with just 221 seats, and the magic number for any prospective speaker to be elected is 217. That means the eventual Republican nominee will need near-unanimous support from the conference to become speaker.
Yesterday the House Republicans got together so that each candidate could make their pitch in a closed-door meeting. Apparently it was rather less acrimonious than last week when Bratty Matty Gaetz (who got them into this mess in the first place) tried to exert influence and got shouted down. Reports are that a Congress Critter I actually once knew (he’s a few years younger and from my hometown) lunged at Gaetz but enough people were in the way to keep him from knocking Gaetz on his butt. Anyway, it seems one of them made his speech which was well-received and then withdrew his name from consideration, and got a standing ovation. That means we are down to eight candidates.
The plan, at least as things stand is that in a few hours House Republicans will meet again behind closed doors, and hold a Vote-O-Rama. It will be a House Republican (well, they ARE a tribe) version of Survivor. In this case the person with the least votes will get dropped from consideration. There will be successive rounds with the “low-man” getting dropped, eventually ending (so the plan goes) with one person having a majority of the votes of the conference. At that point they will take things to the floor for a formal vote.
I for one see a couple of glaring problems with all that. First, what if someone pitches a fit over being “voted off the island?” and an argument breaks out? From where I sit this could get real ugly real quick, hence the Hunger Games reference in the title. These are after all Republicans and it’s no great leap to imagine them running towards that place with all the weapons, grabbing something and starting to slay competitors in cold blood. Frankly, I think it begs the question of how quickly they can proceed from one round of voting to the next. Second, once things get down to just a few candidates left it’s easy enough to imagine many wanting to have another “candidate forum” between the final few. Again, this could be relatively calm like yesterday or turn into a food fight. We’ll have to wait and see.
Most importantly though is that even when the process is done it’s unlikely the “winner” will have the necessary 217 votes when they take things to the floor of the House! As the linked article says, and as noted earlier the leading candidate will need near unanimous support from their caucus. It’s far from clear anyone can get there:
“Getting 217 is obviously going to be very difficult and is the sort of Rubik’s Cube of the answer to all of this,” Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
What are the odds any of these hard-core right-wing, election denying, Trumps-butt-kissing asshats being able to cobble together 217 votes? I’m no Vegas odds maker but I can’t imagine they are good. I think the odds are more likely that the relative calm and civility House Republicans have displayed the past few days will turn into them reverting to form and we’ll see another monkey flinging poo at each other scene.
Followed of course by them blaming Democrats. The Party that for most of my life has insisted it was the “Daddy Party” that would ensure order and sound leadership of “the family” is all upset that the Democrats, who since the Tea Party turned Freedom Caucus turned MAGA GOP have been filling that role won’t do so for THEM. That Democrats won’t step in to stop them from showing how bratty and incompetent they truly are. I said in a recent article there’s a powerful 2024 campaign theme for Democrats in all that.
For the moment however, the proverbial Speaker Games are continuing and the odds? Not in anyone’s favor. If I’m wrong and there’s an afterlife Diogenes is probably laughing his butt off over the current crop of House Republicans.
Years ago Monty Python had a skit about a contest for Twit of the Year. They gathered them, gave them a loaded gun, and whomever could shoot themselves first would be declared the winner. They shot pedestrians, birds, etc., but none could pull it off. Oh, how I wish they were still together. What a movie they could make of this bunch.
I think the GOP going full on Hunger Games would, at least be entertaining. Dump them on an island,maybe one of the Keys,and let the survivor become Speaker.
Bonus: you’d only have one left.
Since I can only add a single THUMBS UP that counts to Conciinnity’s comment, I’m resorting to:
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍!