Thirteen was not the magic number to elect Kevin McCarthy so the unholy tribe will gather again tonight, under the full moon, and work until the witching hour — or beyond. Your guess is as good as mine.
What is coming to light right now is that conversations between moderate Republicans, who evidently don’t want to come out in the open and declare their intentions to their MAGA colleagues because they’re terrified of them, are taking place. But they’re not terrified of the Democrats so they’re going to them, purportedly.
Word on the street is that McCarthy will cave in to the worst that the MAGA bloc will demand, in order to buy their votes. After all, Matt Gaetz has rechristianed him Cavin’ Kevin, and the moderates are worried about what that will look like. So, allegedly, they’re taking steps.
NOW: a senior dem member has shared that moderate Rs have reached out suggesting that if McCarthy wins by making these Freedom Caucus concessions, some moderates will work with Dems to vote down that rules package.
— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) January 6, 2023
Here’s a list of what McCarthy has negotiated away, besides the snap vote, which will essentially render him literally a puppet over the next two years, assuming he’s elected, because he will be bouncing on and off the podium. All of these are important but the rule at the end, the Holman rule, is the one you want to pay close attention to.
Floor vote to establish term limits for all House lawmakers: Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who has introduced a term limits bill, said McCarthy made that commitment.
Ralph Norman is the genius who wanted “marshall law” on January 6, 2021.
Floor vote on a border security bill: In a House GOP conference call on Friday, Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.)said there will be movement on legislation encompassing a border security plan crafted by Texas Republicans, according to a source.
Commitment to move bills through regular order: McCarthy has pledged to bring up 12 regular appropriations bills individually and also made commitments on an open amendment process.
Create subcommittee on “Weaponization of the Federal Government”: Housed under the House Judiciary Committee, the panel is a response to a request from GOP members who have withheld support for McCarthy to form a “Church-style” committee to investigate alleged government abuses, in reference to a 1975 Senate select committee named for former Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) that investigated intelligence agencies.
This is a major tool in the culture wars. This is possibly the jewel in the crown, other than the Holman Rule.
Require 72 hours from release of final bill text before a vote on the House floor.
Bring back the Holman rule: A recently released House rules package brings back the Holman rule, which allows members to propose amendments to appropriations bills that cut the salaries of specific federal workers or funding for specific programs down to $1, effectively defunding them.
The last one is the biggy. That’s the one that can be used to defund the FBI, Department of Homeland security, or people involved in COVID-19 policies. This is also their way of protecting Trumpty Dumpty. They can defund his investigations. Maybe that’s what Trump was thinking of today when he said, “LOOKING VERY GOOD FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND OUR COUNTRY, TONIGHT. ALL COMING TOGETHER. STAY TUNED!!!”
Another post said, “Good things will be soon happening for the Republican Party, and 2024 will be a “Monster” (in a good way, of course!).” Oh, Trump would love nothing more than if he can get his investigations defunded. Whether the MAGA bloc can make this happen is debatable, but it’s what they’re going to try.
That is the H-Bomb, right there. And of course, equally explosive, is who is going to buy his or her way onto what committee. Will Lauren Boebert be on the Intelligence Committee? Or will Marge Greene chair the Judiciary Committee?
Ilhan Omar offers this.
Kevin McCarthy walking into the new Congress with a fresh majority pic.twitter.com/Qfx2K7agk1
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 5, 2023
Just how insane is this going to get? The sun is set, the fool moon is rising. AWoooooooo! Herschel Walker might show up as a werewolf. Expect anything. I mean anything.
There’s a bad moon rising, and it isn’t some song. One can only hope that there is a block, and not just a half dozen or so but a large block of Republicans that have quietly agreed to, if McCarthy makes it over the finish line refuse to vote for that rules package. Of course, that will result in a continued shit-show next week and as bad as this week has been it would be even uglier. Because even if sanity breaks out and a bunch of new GOP Representatives aren’t willing to go along with ALL of this, damned near every one of them will want SOME of it.
I keep saying there’s no telling how all this will play out, and that for all the uncertainty of the process of picking a Speaker we have yet to get into all the UNINTENDED consequences of what’s been going on. Or whatever the result of the fight for the Speaker’s Gavel turns out to be.
Term limits for members of the House? Doesn’t the constitution explicitly spell out how long a member of the House (and Senate) can stay? Last time I looked, they stay in office until they are beaten in an election and the only “terms” mentioned are the ones stating the length before they stand for re-election: every two years. Am I missing something? Doesn’t an amendment need to be added to repeal the one in Article 1 and change the rules? I believe so. I do not believe this can be legislated. The constitution must be amended and that is the only way.
And what these goobers don’t realize (or choose to ignore) is that the Amendment process must pass BOTH Houses with a 2/3 majority vote before going to the states, of which 38 must approve the proposal.
For what it’s worth, Rep Norman first entered the House in June of 2017 (after a special election), meaning he’s in his third term already. Interestingly enough, his bill would limit House members to 3 terms BUT (and isn’t this a coincidence) it wouldn’t apply to current members and the length of time they’ve already served. So, he could conceivably serve an indefinite number of terms BEFORE the amendment is ratified and THEN spend no more than 3 terms in office (and if the amendment is finally added in, say June of an odd-numbered year, the following even-numbered year’s election is when the “3-term clock” begins).
It’s funny how he proposes a bill by which he himself won’t willingly abide. As I noted, he wants a maximum of 3 terms for House members and, yet, he ran for re-election last year knowing he’d be going into his FOURTH term. (And he actually did an opinion piece for an allegedly bipartisan site in which he demands the “physician, heal thyself” routine for Congress–and he blithely ignores his own mandate. Ted Cruz offered the same thing to the Senate with a 2-term limit for Senators. Guess who’s already planning to run for his THIRD term as Senator?)