the 2023 speaker of the house voting thread of implosion

[Hefeweizen 5,307]

Just glad this is all due to Both Sides!!

 

Keep shooting yourselves in the dick, USA.  The writing is on the wall, we’re in the late stages of the end of this experiment.  Because if the US defaults on its debt it’s game over.

[MoJames 8,241]

1 minute ago, Hefeweizen said:

Just glad this is all due to Both Sides!!

 

Keep shooting yourselves in the dick, USA.  The writing is on the wall, we’re in the late stages of the end of this experiment.  Because if the US defaults on its debt it’s game over.

['stache 21,774]

51 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

 

 

This guy definitely still does "NOT" jokes.

Is that why Hern is getting votes? For the Kevin jokes? That would make sense. He’s my congressman and is unequivocally a piece of human shit, I was shocked to hear even the gqp would think he’s competent if tying his own shoe let alone be speaker if the house.

[HenryJames 65,890]

[The Dog 43,805]

 

[washparkhorn 9,935]

[atomheartbevo 89,446]

I woulnd't put it past Boebert and her allies to have something setup to humiliate McCarthy tonight.

[MoJames 8,241]

4 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I woulnd't put it past Boebert and her allies to have something setup to humiliate McCarthy tonight.

Maybe her husband shows up

[SydneyCarton 47,882]

1 minute ago, MoJames said:

Maybe her husband shows up

Why would that be humiliating? Sure, McCarthy has the emotional maturity of a teenage girl, but he isn't actually one so I don't think there's much danger of Mr. Boobert whipping out his dick and humiliating McCarthy with it. Besides, I'm sure McCarthy has had his entire life to come to terms with his micro penis. It can't be THAT much of a demoralizing shock to him at this point, right? If it is, well, he's going to have a LOT of fun investigating Hunter Biden's laptop. 

[Chuckie Finster 22,600]

23 minutes ago, Hefeweizen said:

Just glad this is all due to Both Sides!!

 

Keep shooting yourselves in the dick, USA.  The writing is on the wall, we’re in the late stages of the end of this experiment.  Because if the US defaults on its debt it’s game over.

And it will somehow be the Democrats fault...

 

[Pancho 44,477]

 

[Valmy77 13,094]

43 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

The other tweet in that thread.

The reason is because the House members LOVE it. Now they don't have to do any work at all but just vote for or against whatever the Speaker puts on the floor. 

Amash is right it sucks for any House member who actually wants to deliver on something or for constituents who want their representative to do something. But for most representatives and most constituents who are just partisan cheerleaders it is fine. Better than fine. Awesome really.

So don't expect that to change ever.

[Anastasis 23,395]

2 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

The reason is because the House members LOVE it. Now they don't have to do any work at all but just vote for or against whatever the Speaker puts on the floor. 

Amash is right it sucks for any House member who actually wants to deliver on something or for constituents who want their representative to do something. But for most representatives and most constituents who are just partisan cheerleaders it is fine. Better than fine. Awesome really.

So don't expect that to change ever.

Agree.  And since they don't have shit in terms of real deliberative legislative work to do, they just get to amplify their performative side shows.  It is really the only role they play. 

[The Dog 43,805]

 

[Firemans4Horn 17,833]

33 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

And it will somehow be the Democrats fault...

 

will Nate silver never not shut the fuck up?

[Js1 85,110]

Just now, Firemans4Horn said:

will Nate silver never not shut the fuck up?

Horrible pundit.  Great with numbers. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26,281]

35 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

And it will somehow be the Democrats fault...

 

I just realized that I've never seen Anastasis and Nate Silver in the same place.

[BillyBadAss 189]

I haven't followed this closely - so ignorant question incoming, sorry if already discussed. 

Could the Dems band together to nominate some institutionalist and/or respected Republican and pull enough R votes to get them in? 

[The Dog 43,805]

Just now, BillyBadAss said:

I haven't followed this closely - so ignorant question incoming, sorry if already discussed. 

Could the Dems band together to nominate some institutionalist and/or respected Republican and pull enough R votes to get them in? 

that was being discussed before McCarthy finally got the votes. 

the HFC will be a problem but the 18 or so Biden district GOP reps have leverage too - and they are motivated to NOT cave to the HFC as their jobs are at risk. 

Ironically, Boebert SHOULD be one of the moderates considering how close her election was but she's not terribly bright...

[Gatorubet 30,104]

6 minutes ago, BillyBadAss said:

I haven't followed this closely - so ignorant question incoming, sorry if already discussed. 

Could the Dems band together to nominate some institutionalist and/or respected Republican and pull enough R votes to get them in? 

You mean if the R voters want to get immediately recalled or primaried in two years?

[Js1 85,110]

4 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

You mean if the R voters want to get immediately recalled or primaried in two years?

They can't be recalled

They would be primaried.  2024 is going to see some NASTY primaries.  I could see McCarthy's PAC retaliating against the HFC headaches.  And the HFC-affiliated PACs will be going hard against the 10-20 who supported McCarthy. 

That stupid ass PAC deal is going to be forgotten by next year. 

[Gatorubet 30,104]

4 minutes ago, Js1 said:

They can't be recalled

And of course, that’s right

[Biff Tannen 45,495]

21 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Horrible pundit.  Great with numbers. 

[Pescado_Rojo 19,331]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

I woulnd't put it past Boebert and her allies to have something setup to humiliate McCarthy tonight.

Wasn't there a rumor that she was fucking him a while back? Could this whole thing boil down to a lovers quarrel for her? 

[BillyBadAss 189]

If Dems have 213 seats, and you need 218 votes to elect the speaker - it seems plausible they could find 5 votes for some republican who is well-respected and not a shitbag? Maybe?  Seems preferable to having McCArthy, already a shitbag and even more beholden to the nuts. 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by BillyBadAss

[atomheartbevo 89,446]

1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

Why would that be humiliating? Sure, McCarthy has the emotional maturity of a teenage girl, but he isn't actually one so I don't think there's much danger of Mr. Boobert whipping out his dick and humiliating McCarthy with it. Besides, I'm sure McCarthy has had his entire life to come to terms with his micro penis. It can't be THAT much of a demoralizing shock to him at this point, right? If it is, well, he's going to have a LOT of fun investigating Hunter Biden's laptop. 

McCarthy having a small 6-inch dick and then seeing Hunter's dong could be a turn-on.  Lot of Republicans seem obsessed with Hunter's dong.

6 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Wasn't there a rumor that she was fucking him a while back? Could this whole thing boil down to a lovers quarrel for her? 

That would be absolutely amazing.

Edited January 6, 2023 by atomheartbevo

[Pig Bellmont 8,691]

Just now, BillyBadAss said:

If Dems have 213 seats, and you need 218 votes to elect the speaker - it seems plausible they could find 5 votes for some republican who is well-respected and not a shit-bag? Maybe?  Seems preferable to having McCArthy, already a shitbag and even more beholden to the nuts. 

 

No. There’s just no outcome for Dems to vote for any GOP. The failures to come will be wholly owned by the majority. 

[Pato del Muerto 52,342]

I don’t know what the right thing to do is, but I think I know what the funniest thing is. Which would be now that McCarthy thinks/knows he has the 218, now is when the dems make the deal with some Rs for the compromise candidate. 
 

he thinks he finally has it, only to see his face change when the first democrat votes for some milquetoast R, then another, then an R, etc. 

[The Dog 43,805]

3 minutes ago, BillyBadAss said:

If Dems have 213 seats, and you need 218 votes to elect the speaker - it seems plausible they could find 5 votes for some republican who is well-respected and not a shitbag? Maybe?  Seems preferable to having McCArthy, already a shitbag and even more beholden to the nuts. 

 

 

1 minute ago, Pig Bellmont said:

No. There’s just no outcome for Dems to vote for any GOP. The failures to come will be wholly owned by the majority. 

the scenario was it wouldn't be a current GOP member of the House but someone like Fred Upton who retired. 

IMHO this was only going to happen if we got to next week without a Speaker and it was clear McCarthy couldn't be elected. It would have been part of a broader power sharing agreement with several Democratic members chairing committees. they actually had to do this in the Ohio House when the gop couldn't pick a speaker - and that was with a 2/3rd majority.

anyway it's all about to be moot in a few hours.

[Chooky 13,302]

I'm all for some petty hijinks at the moment.  

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,843]

yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion this is going to be a Lucy with the football moment and I'm here for it

[Anastasis 23,395]

Prediction markets have moved dramatically.  $0.10 NOs are up for grabs if you think shit is going to go south this evening. 

[Beau Vine 54,001]

WAPO:

Quote

Below is a rundown of the six holdouts — what they have said, where they come from and what they’re asking for. Reminder: McCarthy probably needs two of them. But he could also win if three of them vote “present,” or if one votes for him and one votes “present.” (For more on the whole process, see here.)

The 3 hard nos: Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Bob Good (R-Va.)
If McCarthy flips any of these, he will in all likelihood become speaker. These members — even more than Norman — have said they simply won’t vote for McCarthy, no matter what.

A spokesman has said Biggs “will not vote for McCarthy under any circumstance.” Gaetz was one of the original hard-liners, saying there was no concession that would change his mind. And Good, too, has said there is nothing McCarthy could offer that would win his vote.

As noted above, though, McCarthy could lose all three of them and still win. Which brings us to the next big one to watch.

Matthew M. Rosendale (R-Mont.)
We pegged Rosendale alongside Norman as less than a hard no heading into this week. Rosendale’s office has said he could be swayed, but only under “extreme circumstances.”

But Rosendale didn’t flip Friday. In fact, he seemed to take pleasure in holding the line. When asked for his vote, he said he was casting it for “KEVIN …” while waiting for the drama to build, and then added “ … HERN,” one of the other candidates. McCarthy allies didn’t seem to appreciate the theatrics.

Rosendale has requested rules changes that empower the rank and file, which McCarthy has given significant ground on — but apparently not enough. Also worth considering: Rosendale could run for Senate in 2024. While he might reason that holding out could help him win over voters in that primary, it also might alienate establishment Republicans who could support his bid.

Getting Rosendale wouldn’t be quite as significant as getting one of the three “hard nos,” but it would mean McCarthy probably only needs to flip one more member.

Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)
Boebert didn’t telegraph her opposition in advance as much, but she has emerged as one of the leaders of the band of holdouts. At one point, she even urged former president Donald Trump to tell McCarthy to drop out, which would seem a significant statement of her intent. She has also mixed it up with McCarthy-backing Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.).

Boebert loves attention, and what better way to get it than to hunker down with the hardest of the hard-liners?

Boebert very narrowly won her reelection race this year. Aligning with the hard right at this moment and alienating those who could help her keep her seat in the future would seem unwise, especially if McCarthy is going to get across the line anyway.

Eli Crane (R-Ariz.)
The incoming freshman is perhaps the holdout we know the least about. He signed a letter last month that included requests for various rules changes. But the other six signatories all just flipped for McCarthy. Crane didn’t.

Asked by Punchbowl News on Friday what might change his vote, he said, “I don’t have an answer for you,” while citing his desire to stick to his “campaign promises.”

 

[YGIFS 19,449]

53 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Horrible pundit.  Great with numbers. 

How nice.  A man should have a skill.  

Tell me, do you have a favorite passage>?

Edited January 6, 2023 by YGIFS

[HenryJames 65,890]

 

[TeeDubya 3,358]

2 hours ago, 'stache said:

Is that why Hern is getting votes? For the Kevin jokes? That would make sense. He’s my congressman and is unequivocally a piece of human shit, I was shocked to hear even the gqp would think he’s competent if tying his own shoe let alone be speaker if the house.

Hello fellow Okie.  He's my "representative" too.

[TeeDubya 3,358]

and there's this.  What a wild ride is about to start.

[Biff Tannen 45,495]

8 minutes ago, TeeDubya said:

and there's this.  What a wild ride is about to start.

Are the rules voted on after the Speaker is elected?  And aren't those rules one of the main reasons they aren't voting for him currently?

[henrygandorf 29,177]

1 hour ago, BillyBadAss said:

or respected Republican

[Js1 85,110]

1 minute ago, Biff Tannen said:

Are the rules voted on after the Speaker is elected?  And aren't those rules one of the main reasons they aren't voting for him currently?

Speaker first

Rules package second

[Ghost of LL 15,492]

16 minutes ago, TeeDubya said:

and there's this.  What a wild ride is about to start.

It's essentially coalition government in a system that is ill-suited to coalition government.

Most Republicans don't want (1) default or (2) to gut Medicare and Social Security.  They know that they'd get blamed for either one, and they'd end up a minority party for a generation.  So now they've got to find a way to wriggle out of the mess Kevin McCarthy's ambition has gotten them into.

[Js1 85,110]

4 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

It's essentially coalition government in a system that is ill-suited to coalition government.

We spent 2 years eating popcorn watching what was basically a 48-50-2 Senate operate and now we have a 201-213-21 type of House where 5 GOPer get to play the Manchin/Sinema role. 

It’s quite delicious 

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,843]

14 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Speaker first

Rules package second

opposite of in my bedroom. rules first, package second. can't be too careful these days.

[Gatorubet 30,104]

and there's this.  What a wild ride is about to start.

[elfenix 34,171]

10 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

It's essentially coalition government in a system that is ill-suited to coalition government.

Most Republicans don't want (1) default or (2) to gut Medicare and Social Security.  They know that they'd get blamed for either one, and they'd end up a minority party for a generation.  So now they've got to find a way to wriggle out of the mess Newt Gingrich's, the junior and senior senators from Texas's, Lil' Marco's, Mike Lee's, Mark Meadows's, and Kevin McCarthy's ambition has gotten them into.

probably a thousand other names to add

[Tuco 5,076]

1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I don’t know what the right thing to do is, but I think I know what the funniest thing is. Which would be now that McCarthy thinks/knows he has the 218, now is when the dems make the deal with some Rs for the compromise candidate. 
 

he thinks he finally has it, only to see his face change when the first democrat votes for some milquetoast R, then another, then an R, etc. 

It would be amazing to watch the first 5 Dems get up there and vote for some random Republican Congressman.  I would donate to each of their campaigns just to watch the expression on McCarthy's face.  I don't know if CSPAN has enough cameras to capture the panic.  

[Francisco 2.0 32,338]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/06/mccarthy-house-speaker-vote-insurrection-by-other-means/

 

Quote

On the fourth of 11 (and counting) failed attempts this week to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker, Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) complained that Democrats and the media were enjoying the House Republicans’ meltdown too much.

“In some ways they’re salivating,” the lawmaker complained in his speech re-re-renominating McCarthy. “The schadenfreude is palpable.”

No doubt some are taking pleasure in the Republicans’ pain. But as a longtime reviewer of political theater, I can’t find anything enjoyable about this performance.

 

 

Quote

This is what happens when a political party, year after year, systematically destroys the norms and institutions of democracy. This is what happens when those expert at tearing things down are put in charge of governing. The dysfunction has been building over years of government shutdowns, debt-default showdowns and other fabricated crises, and now anti-government Republicans have used their new majority to bring the House itself to a halt.

This is insurrection by other means: Two years to the day since the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol, Republicans are still attacking the functioning of government. McCarthy opened the door to the chaos by excusing Donald Trump’s fomenting of the attack and welcoming a new class of election deniers to his caucus. Now he’s trying to save his own political ambitions by agreeing to institutionalize the chaos — not just for the next two years but for future congresses as well.

 

 

Quote

On Thursday, the day McCarthy failed on an 11th consecutive ballot to secure the speakership, he formally surrendered to the 21 GOP extremists denying him the job. He agreed to allow any member of the House to force a vote at will to “vacate” his speakership — essentially agreeing to be in permanent jeopardy of losing his job. He agreed to put rebels on the Rules Committee, giving them sway over what gets a vote on the House floor, and in key committee leadership posts. He agreed to unlimited amendments to spending bills, inviting two years of mayhem.

 

Spoiler

Perhaps worst of all, the McCarthy-aligned super PAC, the Conservative Leadership Fund, agreed that it would no longer work against far-right extremists in the vast majority of Republican primaries. Essentially, McCarthy tried to placate the crazies in his caucus by giving up every tool he had to maintain order in the House.

t’s not clear at this writing whether even this abject surrender will secure McCarthy the speakership. But it hardly matters. Regardless of the outcome, the saboteurs have already won.

•••

Yes, the Republicans’ televised, self-inflicted debacle is gripping, in the train-wreck sense. As spectacles go, you’d have to look back more than 160 years to find a comparable failure to elect a speaker. Republicans referred to one another as the “Taliban” and “terrorists” and “hostage takers.” They traded obscenities in a caucus meeting. One of the anti-McCarthy Republicans, Matt Gaetz of Florida, publicly called McCarthy a “squatter” for prematurely occupying the speaker’s Capitol office.

On the House floor Thursday, Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), a White man from the South, accused Cori Bush (Mo.), a Black Democrat, of “grotesquely racist rhetoric.” The day before, Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) insinuated groundlessly in her speech re-re-re-re-renominating McCarthy that Democrats were drunk on the job.

Democrats howled for her words to be struck from the record, but because there was no speaker, there was nothing to be done. “There are no rules,” McCarthy said from his seat on the floor.

No rules. No functioning. And, essentially, no House. The elected members of Congress cannot be sworn in (although the office of New York Republican George Santos, who fabricated much of his life story, erroneously issued a press release stating that he had been sworn in). Bills can’t be introduced. Committee memberships and chairmanships can’t be assigned, and staff can’t be hired. Newly elected lawmakers can’t access emails or office supplies. House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik even called off her colleagues’ feeding. “Due to the House adjourning, there will not be pizza and salads tonight,” announced an email from her office Tuesday evening.

But sabotaging government is no joke. The incoming Republican chairmen of the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees warned that the standoff could “place the safety and security of the United States at risk.” Even House Chaplain Margaret Kibben sounded the alarm. “Protect us that in this imbroglio of indecision we do not expose ourselves to the incursion of our adversary,” she prayed at the start of Thursday’s session. “Watch over the seeming discontinuity of our governance and the perceived vulnerability of our national security.”

There was only one upside to the anarchy: The government no longer controlled the TV cameras in the House chamber. Americans at home could watch leaders huddling with rebels, far-right Gaetz conferring with far-left Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and the serial fabricator Santos sitting alone, discreetly picking his nose.

Outside the House chamber, corridors smelling of cigar smoke and body odor became scenes of mayhem: As I and other reporters chased McCarthy on Wednesday night from the floor to his office, we knocked aside Michael McCaul, incoming chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, during a live interview with Fox News. Inside the chamber, lawmakers shouted at the House clerk — the only authority that exists in the leaderless House — as she struggled to maintain order.

The new majority can’t even manage the most routine business without chaos. A GOP attempt to adjourn Wednesday night nearly failed, as lawmakers sprinted into the chamber to vote after time had expired. Thursday morning, Republicans celebrated their two-vote margin on the vote.

“Yesterday, we experienced very briefly our first win,” John James (R-Mich.) said in his speech re-re-re-re-re-renominating McCarthy. “It was a small victory, but didn’t it feel good? We’ve been working hard for that victory.”

Not many would call it a “win” to adjourn the House after failing for the sixth time to elect a speaker — but even that minor victory was short-lived. On Thursday, Republicans held vote after vote in their fruitless attempt to elect McCarthy. The reason? It took them eight hours to corral enough votes to adjourn.

•••

McCarthy’s allies on and off the floor have freely admitted that the leadership pratfall has been “messy.” But this goes well beyond messy and into the realm of stupidity.

One of the 21 anti-McCarthy holdouts, Ralph Norman of South Carolina (the one who urged Trump to declare “marshall [sic] law” before the Jan. 6 insurrection), told me and others Wednesday that he would support McCarthy only if he agreed to “shut the government down” rather than “raise the debt ceiling.” In reality, one has nothing to do with the other.

But such people now run the show. McCarthy clearly can’t control them. Even Trump can’t control them. Rebel Lauren Boebert (Colo.), just a few seats away from McCarthy on the floor, told the House that Trump, rather than lobbying for McCarthy, “needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, sir, you do not have the votes and it’s time to withdraw.”

McCarthy forced a grin.

His leadership has been lacking, if not utterly absent, throughout the crisis.

First, he stiff-armed opponents, delaying for weeks before responding to their demands.

Then he and his allies tried to fight the rebels, shaming them publicly and threatening to take away their committee assignments.

Next, Team McCarthy tried to beat them through attrition, forcing the 11 votes over three days that McCarthy lost by nearly identical tallies.

And finally he capitulated. “Cavin’ Kevin,” as Gaetz called him, surrendered.

The one thing McCarthy didn’t try? Negotiating with Democrats. They could easily have given him the votes he needs to become speaker, in exchange for concessions. But bipartisanship is a nonstarter in McCarthy’s caucus.

•••

An hour before the new Congress convened to elect a speaker on Tuesday, an email went out from the Capitol Police: The Capitol’s “Duress Alarm System” had gone offline. Too bad, because McCarthy’s duress was just beginning.

In a caucus meeting, McCarthy told Republicans that he had earned the job, “God dammit.”

Replied Boebert: “This is bulls---!”

She walked out and told reporters: “Now here we are being sworn at instead of being sworn in.”

Gaetz, at her side, called McCarthy “the biggest alligator” in the Washington swamp.

McCarthy, in turn, vowed to bore the rebels into submission. “Look,” he told reporters before heading to the floor, “I have the record for the longest speech ever on the floor. I don’t have a problem getting a record for the most votes for speaker, too.”

But it quickly became clear that the anti-McCarthy Republicans were more numerous than expected. The first roll call produced 19 Republican votes against McCarthy. Each one set off a wave of murmurs in the chamber: Biggs. Bishop. Boebert. Brecheen. Cloud. Within the first few minutes of the alphabetical roll call, McCarthy’s defeat was already assured — the first time in a century a speaker hadn’t been chosen on the first ballot.

McCarthy greeted each defection with a wan smile. He jiggled his leg. He tapped his reading glasses. He scrolled on his phone. He whispered to an aide. And when the clerk’s tally made his loss official, he acted as if he had won, shaking hands, smiling, waving.

It was much the same for subsequent votes, as he endured insult after insult:

“The last time an election for speaker went to a second ballot, Leader [Hakeem] Jeffries’s beloved New York Yankees had not yet won a World Series,” Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) pointed out.

Gaetz referred to McCarthy as “someone who has sold shares of themselves for more than a decade” to get the job.

On the third vote, Byron Donalds (Fla.) joined the rebels. “It’s clear right now that Kevin doesn’t have the votes,” he told a group of reporters after his switch.

On the fourth vote, Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) switched her vote from McCarthy to “present.”

Nominating McCarthy for the fifth ballot, Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) asked: “Does it really boil down to this, that 20 or more of my colleagues will never trust Kevin McCarthy as speaker?”

One of the rebels, Scott Perry (Pa.) claimed that his opposition to McCarthy “is not about personalities.” This prompted laughter from the Democratic side.

On the fifth vote, a foreign journalist in the press gallery fell asleep, face down on the table.

On the sixth ballot, Cammack began her McCarthy nomination speech by telling the House: “Well, it’s Groundhog Day, again.”

And after each tally, the clerk repeated the same refrain: “A speaker has not been elected.”

Ignoring the reality on the floor, McCarthy kept smiling, back-patting, waving to his family in the gallery, pumping his fist. During one roll call, he was so distracted that he didn’t respond at first when the clerk called his name — and for good reason: He had already begun the process of surrendering.

The concessions began to flow Wednesday night, and they flooded out during talks Thursday. As the GOP rebels held the line on the floor, rejecting McCarthy five more times, McCarthy’s representatives were one floor below, in the office of Republican Whip-elect Tom Emmer, giving away the store.

They had been given essentially everything the holdouts had asked for — and still, the extremists demanded more. “A deal is NOT done,” Perry, head of the House Freedom Caucus tweeted Thursday afternoon.

Would enough rebels accept McCarthy’s surrender? Would McCarthy’s mainstream supporters balk at his capitulation? In a sense, McCarthy’s fate had become unimportant, because whoever occupies the speaker’s chair will now be irrelevant. McCarthy’s surrender has condemned the House to two years — or more — of anarchy.

 

[TexArcher 37,515]

16 minutes ago, Tuco said:

It would be amazing to watch the first 5 Dems get up there and vote for some random Republican Congressman.  I would donate to each of their campaigns just to watch the expression on McCarthy's face.  I don't know if CSPAN has enough cameras to capture the panic.  

Throw a couple of votes John McCain's way.  If Trump can get a vote, surely McCain can.

Hell, give one to Darth Vader, too.

[Js1 85,110]

So they’re going to meet again tonight to try and elect a Speaker and then McCarthy immediately wants the rules package voted on. I’m so sure everyone has had a chance to read his super secret negotiations with the HFC to ensure it’s palatable. 

[SimonBolivar 10,930]

2 minutes ago, Js1 said:

So they’re going to meet again tonight to try and elect a Speaker and then McCarthy immediately wants the rules package voted on. I’m so sure everyone has had a chance to read his super secret negotiations with the HFC to ensure it’s palatable. 

Which you know is a big point sticking point the HFC has been talking about is time to read shit....fuckers ain't reading shit