House of Representatives 5: The Clown Caucus is Throwing Their Toys Out of The Playpen

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

"Nancy Pelosi’s advice for the next GOP speaker"

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When progressive hard-liners used to come to Nancy Pelosi with yet another unrealistic demand for action from their wish list, the then-speaker had a standard reply ready: “I agree with you. I have those signs in my basement from 30 years ago. But right now, you’re in the Congress of the United States. We’re not on the streets with the signs.”

Pelosi would tell them that when they had 218 votes behind them, a majority in the House, she’d be happy to talk to them again: “But otherwise, recognize that we have to build consensus ... and live to fight another day.”

The speaker’s role comes with many such moments, she recalled in an interview in her office on Thursday; as we talked, Republicans who now hold a tenuous majority in the House were huddled across the street in the Capitol, unable to come together to select their own leader to take over the wreckage that Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has left behind.

Pelosi and others who held the gavel learned — but the deposed McCarthy never did — that one of the hardest and most vital things a speaker must do is say no, sometimes to friends and ideological allies. At times, her majority was so narrow she could afford to lose no more than three votes. But without a leader willing and powerful enough to summon that kind of fortitude, the House is ungovernable.

McCarthy’s constant appeasement of a handful of bellicose GOP members is what got us to this pitiful moment. He put their legislation on the floor knowing it would go no further, gave them key committee assignments — and even signed what was effectively the death warrant of his own speakership by agreeing to allow the rule in which any member could call for a vote to vacate the chair.

All of this should be an object lesson to whoever gets the job next. As departing speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) advised his own successor, Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.): “You can promise effort, but don’t promise results.” Both Boehner and Ryan saw their leadership undermined by the demands of a rising hard-right faction within their party, but it was McCarthy who ceded effective control of the chamber to them.

“Part of the job of the speaker is to manage reality rather than fantasy,” former speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) told me.

For Pelosi, who had a solidly liberal record, an early test came shortly after Democrats regained their majority in the 2006 election and elevated her to the speakership. The big issue in that election had been the Iraq War, and she had been one of the most outspoken opponents to it. Which is why many in her caucus felt betrayed when she did not stand in the way of Congress providing more funds for the conflict without insisting on a clear timetable for ending it — an end date that would not pass the Senate nor survive George W. Bush’s veto.

“My message to them was, I’ll compare my credentials on opposing this war to anybody here, but as long as the troops are at war, we must support them,” Pelosi recalled. “I basically said to them, we all support the troops. But we have to do it when it’s difficult as well as when it’s easy.”

In 1996, Gingrich brought legislation raising the minimum wage to the House floor — a popular measure conservatives were against and yet knew would pass with a combination of Democratic and more moderate GOP support.

In that year’s election, “we had 23 districts where members thought they would lose if they didn’t get a vote,” Gingrich told me. It was an especially bitter pill to swallow for Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.), who opposed the very existence of a minimum wage. And yet, Armey argued in a private meeting, the survival of their majority hinged on allowing the House to work its collective will.

When Boehner was speaker, one of his closest friends in the House would regularly come to his office and plead for a seat on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. Boehner would hear out the member, then tell him: “Not gonna happen.”

But now “the reality is we have a lot of members who have distorted views of what’s possible,” said Brendan Buck, a former aide to both Boehner and Ryan.

It might be that only one of the bomb-throwers themselves — say, front-runner-of-the-moment Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — would have the credibility it takes to say no to them, though there is little evidence he has that capacity for pragmatism and respect for the institution. Or maybe it has to be a graybeard such as Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who is respected across the various factions within a party that is squabbling with a pettiness that would put a small-town city council to shame.

But someone has to do it. At this moment of peril for the country, and the world, there is too much at stake for any new speaker to continue indulging the least responsible actors in Congress. Is there a grown-up in the House?

 

[fraurosena]

15 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Is there a grown-up in the House?

Yes. They’re called Democrats.

[Ozlsn]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Yes. They’re called Democrats.

There is literally no reason the speaker has to be from the majority party. The sooner moderate R's (assuming any are left) recognise that and work on moving things forward the better.  If they want an R speaker then they need to start looking to the middle of their faction and work with the D's to get them in - and stop allowing a small faction of ideologically extreme and immature whingers to hold everyone hostage.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

There's no way in hell that will happen. They'll all nominate and vote for Gaetz first.

Anybody who agrees to be bipartisan is going to get run off in the next election like Cheney and they know it. They're all cowards at this point who have cow towed into the crazy for so long now - they're not suddenly going to become reasonable people.

I didn't like most of John McCain's politics but I think he was the last leader in the GOP who wasn't indoctrinated and who had any self respect.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Some House Republicans try to change the rules so losers become winners"

Quote

House Republicans live in a world where math is upside down.

In this fantasy land, five can be as powerful as 217; eight as big as 433; and, in a new twist this past week, 99 out of 223 can somehow be turned into a strong majority.

This latest example came Friday, when Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) claimed the nomination for GOP House speaker, despite a clear majority of the full House not wanting him to be their pick.

On Wednesday, Jordan lost the nomination, running a competitive race but only getting 99 votes — about 44 percent of the 223 ballots cast. He offered a tepid endorsement, at best, to the winner, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), and then sat back as his allies sabotaged the front-runner.

They told Scalise that they would re-create the drama of January when Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) failed on the first 14 ballots because about 20 hard-right conservatives voted for someone else, forcing him to make key concessions until they let him win on the 15th roll call.

After enduring about 30 hours of this torture, Scalise said no thanks. He will stay put as majority leader and watch as Jordan now faces the same struggles.

Before Friday’s new vote, Jordan’s allies, including McCarthy, who was deposed earlier this month, hyped his candidacy enough that expectations were set for him to blow past Scalise’s initial tally. Instead, a last-minute entrant, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), a backbencher focused on national security issues who never sought a leadership post, embarrassed Jordan with a strong second-place showing.

Jordan received only 124 votes, claiming about 10 of the protest votes from Wednesday that went to write-in candidates or simply stated “present.” He flipped only about 15 of Scalise’s initial supporters. In a second secret ballot that asked Republicans how they would vote in the required public roll call for speaker, 55 doubled down and said they would not support Jordan.

This sets up the same conundrum that felled McCarthy and prompted Scalise to abandon the race: With 221 on their side, Republicans have just four votes to spare if all 212 Democrats vote the other way.

Jordan’s allies have signaled a political-roughshod campaign that will dare his opponents to vote against the far-right Republican in the public, alphabetical roll call on the House floor. They hope they will crumble from fear of retribution from conservative primary voters.

“I think there’s a clear path to get him to 217. But as long as you’re doing secret ballots, it’s a lot harder to get 217. We’ve got to break cover,” Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), a leader of a mainstream conservative caucus, told reporters Friday.

But Jordan’s staunchest opponents warned that a pressure campaign would backfire. “Look, when you’re doing it in a positive way, you can usually get a lot,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), a staunch Scalise backer, told reporters.

Diaz-Balart, who said he would never vote for Jordan, said it would be an arrogant mistake to ignore the adage about catching more flies with honey than vinegar.

“Usually you do it at your own peril,” he said.

After nine months of watching their hard-right flank essentially extort McCarthy, this band of establishment Republicans has declared that it’s time to stop rewarding the hostage-takers. Instead of giving in to Jordan, they want to adopt the very same strategy: minority-rule tactics to sabotage him.

If as few as five refuse to back Jordan, he can’t win. That’s what happened on multiple key procedural votes last month, when just five Republicans opposed McCarthy’s defense spending bill and voted against the parliamentary vote, sabotaging the legislation.

When the hard right decided to take down McCarthy, those Republicans used the obscure motion to vacate that served as a vote of no confidence. As is custom in votes for speaker, all Democrats voted against the GOP option. Then eight Republicans effectively determined for the rest of the House — currently at 433 members because of two vacancies — that McCarthy would no longer be speaker by siding with Democrats.

Johnson, normally one of the more reserved and earnest lawmakers, proposed forcing the full House to vote early in the week even if Jordan is expected to lose. They would then go through round after round after round, re-creating the chaotic January scene to ramp up the pressure on Diaz-Balart’s group.

“Jim Jordan should continue this fight all the way through,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) said on Fox News on Friday evening.

That high-risk scenario has some Jordan supporters urging restraint, including Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who has previously called for no floor vote until the outcome is certain.

“Right now, we just need cool heads and logic to prevail. I think that can occur,” Donalds said Friday.

Jordan’s opponents view the Johnson-Roy approach as another act of deceit.

Before Scalise’s victory Wednesday, Roy tried to change rules so that the nominee would not go to a full vote in the House until securing 217 Republican votes.

Adopting the look and style of a Hollywood movie mad scientist, Roy regularly plots complex strategies, focused on obscure rules and confounding processes. This time, he wanted to force many ballots in the speaker vote: the first involving both candidates, then the winner would go through more grilling and another secret ballot or two, before finally a public roll call in front of all his GOP colleagues.

It seemed designed to deny Scalise, or perhaps anyone other than Jordan, the requisite support to win — which is why Roy’s proposal got trounced by almost 50 votes.

Scalise then won the actual vote, 113-99, but rather than accepting the humiliating defeat, Roy declared he would vote only for Jordan.

A dozen Jordan backers quickly declared they would never vote for Scalise, while about a dozen more lurked in the backdrop, as well as a half-dozen or so moderates who remained loyal to McCarthy.

Pretty quickly, Scalise’s supporters — who include most traditional conservatives on the Armed Services and Appropriations committees — felt that Jordan had reverted back to his original form. In his first dozen years, before McCarthy brought him into his inner circle, Jordan served as the rabble-rouser, threatening to expel speakers and trying to take down bipartisan, must-pass legislation.

Jordan did not offer Scalise an endorsement and left the closed-door meeting without talking to the hundred or more reporters outside the room.

His aides sent word that he offered to give a nominating speech on Scalise’s behalf, but Scalise supporters reported that the offer required him to only stand for one ballot and, if he failed, turn around and nominate Jordan on the next ballot.

Jordan’s supporters denied any double-dealing. “He has said in the most plain, possible English to the conference, entirely wide, that he would support Steve,” Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) told reporters after a Thursday meeting with Scalise.

Still, Mast acknowledged that his plan to support Scalise after he won “just ran into some things” and that he was still with Jordan.

Once Scalise withdrew on Thursday evening, Jordan jumped back into the race anew, this time as the front-runner.

In public, Jordan’s opponents have walked a careful line to avoid accusing him of treachery.

Instead, they take him at his word that he truly did support Scalise. But they fault the former national collegiate champion wrestler, given his mythological clout within far-right circles, for being weak.

“There’s two alternatives: Either you lied, or you couldn’t deliver,” Diaz-Balart said. “I’ve never been lied to, I’ve never been lied to by him. So therefore, to me, it’s got to be the other alternative, which is he has not been able to deliver on a relatively simple thing.”

So now the Diaz-Balart wing plans to force Jordan to swallow some of the same medicine he has delivered throughout the years.

All these minority-rule moments turn the tables on a GOP conference that used to assert the “Hastert rule,” an unofficial standard often imposed by J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), the House speaker from 1999 into 2007. It said legislation that did not have the support of “the majority of the majority” would not get a vote on the House floor.

Now, the majority of the majority no longer rules, given that both McCarthy and Scalise had such support, as Jordan now does.

Instead, a small bloc — sometimes five, sometimes eight, sometimes 20, perhaps 99 — has turned the math upside down.

With the new “Jordan rule,” it’s the minority of the majority that matters most.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[Marty1227]

Why would anyone be against Gym Jordan?  Why would anyone be for him is a better question.  He has done nothing during his entire career in the House, except yell, and lie.  And speaking of lying…the worse might be when he tweeted this:

If you aren’t familiar with this story…it wasn’t a lie.  The little girl was raped, and had to go to a doctor in Indiana for an abortion (the doctor ended up facing charges).  A man was arrested for raping the 10 year old twice, and in July of 2023 pled guilty to both charges and was sentenced to life.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I don't know of any tie between Hamas and Milli Vanilli. How weird.

 

[Ozlsn]

Who are the Washington Examiner when they're at home? And who owns them?

6 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I don't know of any tie between Hamas and Milli Vanilli. How weird.

 

Does anyone know or care who Milli Vanilli are now? Certainly no one under 30 has heard of them.

[GreyhoundFan]

4 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

Who are the Washington Examiner when they're at home? And who owns them?

Does anyone know or care who Milli Vanilli are now? Certainly no one under 30 has heard of them.

The Examiner is owned by Philip Anschutz, who is a billionaire. When he started it, the directive was to only hire conservative writers. He is also the one who pushed Gorsuch for his first federal judgeship. 
 

One of the two members of MV died in the 1990s. 

[GreyhoundFan]

I don’t think it’s scary.  I think it’s terrifying.

 

[Shrubbery]

Halfway through the first vote, there’s already 13 „other“ votes - is this going to become January 2.0?

Anyone got popcorn?

[Loveday]

212 Jeffries, 200 Jordan, 20 'other.' 

I think this may turn out to be a pretty long day for the House.

[AnywhereButHere]

Aaannnddd - One vote down. Fourteen to go! Gym Jordan is well on his way to his own Groundhog Day. 

[fraurosena]

Speaker Emerita with a wonderful burn.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Qevin is such an asshole:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

You couldn't make this up:

 

[CTRLZero]

18 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

You couldn't make this up:

Definitely one of the craziest things I’ve heard, and I’ve heard a lot!  🙃

[Ozlsn]

3 hours ago, Loveday said:

212 Jeffries, 200 Jordan, 20 'other.' 

I think this may turn out to be a pretty long day for the House.

Oh ffs here "other" voters. Get together with the Dems, find an agreeable moderate compromise candidate and ambush the hell out of the Freedom Caucus. Then change the vote rules immediately. 

Why 55 people who don't want Jordan can't get off their collective arses and do this I don't know.

[fraurosena]

He still doesn’t have the votes…

 

[Ozlsn]

Now is the time for the 55 to start negotiations with the Dems, and to shore up a candidate. If they found a moderate R I suspect a lot of the current Jordan vote would vanish.

[GreyhoundFan]

I don’t think so.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Why am I not surprised?