mtutiger

Shot: Chaser:

Nancy Mace... always the star of whatever show is going on her head at any given moment

Also, I think people really underestimate how angry some of these Republicans in Biden districts, or even some of the non-MAGA types, are with the extreme wing of the party after the McCarthy debacle. And how unlikely it ever was they would bend to whatever Gaetz and his crew wanted. That's really why I'm not surprised with this result.... even beyond the Biden District ones, there are a lot of the lower profile, "go along to get along" GOP types (ie. my new rep, Darin LaHood, for instance) who were always going to be out of reach for Jordan.

113-99.... I'm gonna guess that it takes more than one vote to get a Speaker again this time

For something like the bolded to take place (ie. reaching across the aisle), it's basically going to require political hari-kuri to happen... I think that's a big reason why McCarthy wouldn't negotiate for Dem votes last time either, he knew that would be the end of his career beyond the 118th Congress. And really, at least at this point, I don't see the spine to do it from any members. Having said all of that, I do think what these latest machinations tell us is that Jim Jordan is more unlikely than we initially thought... sure, there will be some grinding of teeth from the hardliners who will complain that Kevin shouldn't be a player because he was rejected, but if my math is correct, a unified bloc of 60-80 votes, if they stay unified, is still larger than the 8 GOP members who ultimately voted to oust McCarthy.... that can't just be waved away. And the types of members who are behind McCarthy (motivated I'm sure out of anger for what happened to McCarthy by those 8 members) aren't going to be the most reachable for someone like Jim Jordan. Ultimately, this thing is gonna take a while to sort out...

I'd have to find it, but I saw a tweet earlier today from a political reporter who suggested that McCarthy might still have 60-80 votes in the House. Like, yeah, he may still be dead man walking in the end, but 60-80 votes isn't exactly chicken feed.... like, they are going to have to negotiate something out if 60-80 hold out in favor of McCarthy being reinstated. EDIT:

There's also Option 3, where he's Kanye 2.0.... I think that stock in this discussion is undervalued.

OK. Still would assume that GOP members of Congress who voted to defund Ukraine are proud of their votes and should be able to stand behind it, rather than being excused for it for nebulous reasons.

Correct.... and I wish it were easier for some to see both what is happening in Israel and Ukraine in that broader context versus just playing one off the other (ie. Josh Hawley's statement)

Stan wasn't going off of actual roll call votes in the House whenever he made claims about anything.

Condescend much? Even if Congress has largely operated using Omnibus bills over the past 25 years, why shouldn't elected officials responsible for their "votes"? Even if Ukraine funding was a "show vote", isn't it kinda telling that over half of them decided not to fund?

I, personally, would love to see anyone make the argument to a room of politicians (GOP and Dem) that Israel shouldn't get any funding because, don't worry, the war machine always gets theirs.... They would (with good reason) be laughed and/or jeered out of the room. Because it is a specious and unserious argument that isn't founded in anything concrete. And the same would hold true with Ukraine as well.... if Congresscritters want to vote to cut off aid, they should be made to own that decision, not covered by unserious arguments that hinge on throwaway lines about "the war machine" and whatnot.

Again, I think actual, concrete votes taken in the House of Representatives tell me a lot more than "trust me bro, Ukraine's gonna get money because [insert conspiratorial throwaway line here]"

Nothing personal, but I prefer evidence or documentation to conspiracy theories.

What isn't clear at this point is whether any of the candidates (with or without McCarthy) are *anywhere* near 217. And I also think it's interesting that, for all the members who have declared a stated preference for Jordan or Scalise, there are still quite a few who have kept their powder dry. I suspect that a lot of these folks have bitterness / resentment toward the eight and aren't going to just move off of McCarthy that easily, however doomed a prospect that might be.

Meanwhile, the benevolent Russians (at least the hard line variety) appear to be throwing in with Palestine. Someone alert MTG

It's insane the degree to which Trump's transgressions get buried just because the press considers the cake baked. Like, come the F on.... it doesn't matter if people expect him to act like a toddler and break laws, it's still front page news when you have an ex-POTUS out there spreading state secrets at his Private Club lol

Case in point... It's not great that everything in today's day and age is often reduced to sound bites... but that doesn't mean the sound bites don't contain some kernels of truth to them

I think Jordan could be worse, but at the same time, things are pretty bad right now. It would be one thing if we were talking about John Boehner (who the Dems would have saved), but Kevin McCarthy proved himself to be a terrible Speaker and, if he wanted to preserve his job, probably should have handled the position differently on a number of levels.

I'm sympathetic to Ed's point in the sense that what comes after may not be all that great (at least in the short term), it's not lost on me. But if the result had been different the other day, it wouldn't change the reality, which is that a bunch of crazy nihilists run the Republican Party right now. And as you said, that's not a problem that Democrats are going to be able to fix.... that comes down to Republican politicians and their voters. Keeping Kevin in office doesn't do much on that front, it just kicks the can down the road.... until eventually (?) the bill comes due.

He also enabled Marjorie Taylor Greene throughout his speakership while kicking Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell off of committees for basically no reason at all. All while breaking his word on the debt ceiling deal and trying to pin the blame of a possible shutdown on the Democrats (even after their caucus delivered the Lions share of the votes for the CR) I don't know what the future holds, but when you look at the totality of work, he has no one to blame but himself for what happened on Tuesday.

I would only add to this - especially in light of what happened to Kevin McCarthy and how it has been covered, today's GOP politicians (including Donald Trump) are so often covered as if they don't have agency or can't help some of the choices that they make. Or that those choices may have practical consequences. Trump on immigration is (yet) another example of this IMO