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

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

57 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Why am I not surprised?

 

"democracy"

[fraurosena]

It wouldn't surprise me if it all ends up with Patrick McHenry as "acting" Speaker until the next elections.

Oh, and Ken Buck is not the only one making these comments.

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by fraurosena
extra info

[fraurosena]

There are 8 Other voters right now, so Jordan does not have the votes. Again.

[CTRLZero]

They’ve barely started voting and already (per Washington Post):

Rep. Jim Jordan has already fallen short of the number of votes he needs to be elected speaker.

[fraurosena]

1 minute ago, CTRLZero said:

They’ve barely started voting and already (per Washington Post):

Rep. Jim Jordan has already fallen short of the number of votes he needs to be elected speaker.

Yeah, he's lost 12 already... and counting...

[fraurosena]

Total tally 22 defectors from Jordan. He lost more than he did yesterday. 

[fraurosena]

Apparently, Jim Jordan is a sucker for punishment and wants to find out how many more votes he can lose.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Qevin is continuing with his assholery today:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

The rethuglikan wet dream, getting rid of social security and medicare, preferably while banning abortion and birth control.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This is good:

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

Good grief I'm more and more disgusted by republicans. Several doing interviews today that it's the democrats fault they don't have a speaker.

not their crazy faction....oh no...the democrats cause ALLLLL our problems.

The interviewer (trapper?) was asking one guy "so it doesn't bother you about the election denying" (paraphrased) and the guy was like "well I voted to certify....."

you didn't answer the question my guy. you did NOT answer the question.

You'd think at this point they'd just quit trying to play the election fraud card. There's no proof. There never was proof. Your coup failed. Move on to whatever your next evil scheme is ok?

They seem butt hurt that the democrats didn't let them stage a coup. This seems to be the true thing that's bothering them.

And if I hear/read/see one more "the people elected a republican house" comment. 

Fuck you. The "people" did not elect a republican house. Various districts elected somebody to represent them in the federal government, with the result of a very very slight republican lean. There was no vote "to put republicans in power." Very clearly you're holding on by a thin thread. There's absolutely no mandate from the people that there's a clear cut desire by the people for your stupid freaking policies. Stop acting like you won in a landslide and if weren't for these pesky rules and democrats, you'd be free to do whatever you want.

What is wrong with them!?

[GreyhoundFan]

I’m so glad he’s laser focused on serving the people.  /s. First he boots Nancy and Steny from their offices, then he replaces a chair. 

[AnywhereButHere]

18 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I’m so glad he’s laser focused on serving the people.  /s. First he boots Nancy and Steny from their offices, then he replaces a chair. 

Considering the republicans hate progress and want to roll the clock back… how about all the way back? The heels and wig look would definitely add height! 
 

[AnywhereButHere]

https://apple.news/AO1CMesvpQgOFGlr2uglIwQ

Apparently, Gym Jordan doesn’t have the stomach for an additional 13 rounds of humiliation. 
 

Quote

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) won’t pursue a third vote for speaker as the House looks to empower the legislative powers of Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private discussions.

After two failed votes, Republicans had made clear the conservative firebrand didn’t have enough support to win the speaker’s gavel. With House functions at a standstill, lawmakers will now move forward with a proposal to expand the powers of the acting speaker.

Jordan is dropping his bid for the time being, but remains the speaker designee and will reserve the option to hold a speaker vote at any time.

Senior Democrats support the plan. It reopens the House as a new funding deadline approaches in less than a month. And with Jordan as the speaker designee, they are still able to frame Republicans as extremists backing an election denier as their leader.

McHenry has served in the role since Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted on Oct. 3.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[AnywhereButHere]

Yeah, now it looks like there will be a third vote. So either Gym is a glutton for punishment, or he feels the threat(?) of McHenry is enough to get him over the top? 

Round and round we go!

[Ozlsn]

Can they find 5 R's with guts? Not liking the odds.

Having said that doesn't the number needed change if people are absent? Can they find 5 R's who were in the wash room and missed the vote... that I can see, heh.

[Ozlsn]

Actually you know what would be utterly hilarious? If they vote McCarthy in again, and he cracks it totally with the Freedom Caucus and refuses to listen to, act on or even acknowledge any of their demands. At this point they seem to be slowly circling back to him as the compromise candidate but given Gaetz et al's shenanigans... that could end badly for them. 

[47of74]

 

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by 47of74

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

Why don't they just elect the short guy for speaker?

Apparently as of this moment Jordan is pushing for a temporary speaker til january so he can round up votes.

Like geez man. you don't have the frigging votes.

My take away is that he's pulling a trump move here. "stop the count" and delay. And presumably he intends to threaten the people who are not voting for him. I think at this point all the not for Jordan people have had plenty of time to consider it and said No. What does more time do??

Jordan apparently "has a plan"

What is his plan??? I think it's threats. What other plan could he possibly have? I guess bribes? He needs time to gather money for bribes??

 

 

[Xan]

My guess is threats.  In the big game of carrots vs. sticks, the current Republicans go with sticks.  They'll have Donald or his people call and threaten to cut off all campaign funds.  They'll have Fox airing dirty linen.  They'll threaten the congresscritters, their families, and their pets.  They'll use blackmail -- real or invented.  

Donny really needs Jordan in there to steal another election.  He will stoop to any level to get that.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Republicans reject expanding interim speaker’s power as House stagnates"

Quote

A group of House Republicans supporting a controversial proposal that would expand the power of a temporary speaker saw their hopes of reopening the chamber almost immediately dissipate Thursday as the conference struggles to coalesce around a permanent choice for speaker of the House.

The crippling dysfunction of the Republican conference has kept the House without a speaker for nearly three weeks, an unprecedented stretch of time ahead of must-pass deadlines to fund the government and other expiring priorities before the end of the year. Bitter divisions — both personal and political in nature — have played out in public and in heated conference meetings since a faction of hard-right Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House speaker earlier this month.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the conference’s current speaker-designate, has lost two votes on the House floor in his effort to clinch the gavel. On Thursday, he agreed to support a resolution that would have empowered Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) to temporarily perform the functions of speaker until Jan. 3, 2024. Doing so would have allowed Jordan to remain the conference’s nominee for speaker, try to corral support back into his corner and call up a vote for his speaker candidacy once he had the necessary 217 Republican votes.

But after a significant number of his far-right colleagues balked at the idea in a tense, hours-long meeting, Jordan reversed course from earlier in the day. He abandoned his support for empowering McHenry and announced he would hold a third vote Friday on his candidacy for speaker.

“We made the pitch to members on the resolution as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work. We decided that wasn’t where we’re going to go,” Jordan said. “I’m still running for speaker, and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race. But I want to go talk with a few of my colleagues.”

That support is unlikely to come. Several Republicans had already planned on voting against Jordan in a third round, with many of his own supporters admitting Jordan will never get the 217 votes needed to become speaker of the House.

“I think he’d be the most effective speaker we have, but he can’t get there. That’s the fact,” said Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-Tex.), a Jordan supporter. Still, Nehls doesn’t support empowering McHenry and wants Republicans to “stay here until we get it done.”

Later Thursday, Jordan, McCarthy, McHenry and Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), a key ally, met with 12 of the holdouts in what became an airing of grievances, according to two people familiar with the meeting who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private meeting. No one’s mind was changed into supporting Jordan, and Jordan did not react when members pressed it would be best if he stepped aside.

The push to empower a temporary speaker appeared to be the first potential pathway to ensuring the House could legislate as the party works to overcome its issues. The backup plan had gained steam after Jordan decided Thursday morning to call off another round of balloting as his opposition grew.

He announced his decision to the Republican conference Thursday morning in a closed meeting, but the proposal was quickly rejected. Some Republicans wanted to put the resolution up for a vote on the House floor only if a majority of them approved it in conference. Another group wanted Jordan to drop out before getting behind the resolution.

Several Republicans asked Jordan whether he would step down, a question he skirted. Others wanted the eight members who voted to oust McCarthy to apologize and renominate him as speaker.

Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Tex.) stood up and reminded Jordan that during the candidate forum last week with Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), both candidates had pledged to remove themselves from the speaker race if they could not clinch the necessary 217 GOP votes, according to two people familiar with the interaction.

McCarthy endorsed the resolution to empower McHenry, his close friend who he tapped as Speaker Pro Tempore using a post-9/11 rule to ensure the continuity of government. But he was pressed by Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.) about whether Jordan should be a statesman like him and Scalise, two Republican leaders who stepped aside when they realized they did not have enough support to continue running for speaker.

McCarthy did not say whether Jordan should step down and allow the speakership election to begin again. He said he thinks it’s good to step aside, but he also noted that it took him 15 rounds to win the speaker’s gavel.

However, Republican lawmakers have pointed out a key difference between McCarthy and Jordan’s candidacies for speaker: McCarthy’s tally continued to improve throughout the rounds of voting, and he had strong relationships as he has raised millions of dollars for many members’ victories. Jordan’s tally probably will continue to get worse, and he has few alliances outside his far-right coalition.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who orchestrated McCarthy’s ouster, spoke up against the resolution and suggested that Jordan holdouts should as well because it would give lawmakers time to whip opponents of Jordan into shape, according to several people in the room. The threat did not land well with lawmakers, particularly those who have received death threats since voting against Jordan.

A shouting match broke out between Gaetz and McCarthy, according to people in the room.

“I actually think it was a really productive discussion,” Gaetz said after the meeting. “People got to get their viewpoint out. And what I’m really happy about is that this did not end with a desire to have speaker lite or a ratified speaker pro tem.”

After almost four hours behind closed doors, Jordan declared that Republicans would not vote on the resolution and the House would vote for a third time on his candidacy for speaker.

In his current role, McHenry only has the power to oversee speakership elections. But there is bipartisan desire to provide aid and other support to Israel in its war with Hamas, as well as address government funding which runs out in mid-November.

“We need to, frankly, get our s--t together to fight those issues,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) said.

By supporting the resolution, Jordan and his allies would be given the time to continue building support for his speakership bid. But the 55 Republicans who voted against him in a closed-door meeting last week have coordinated their opposition and planned to slowly flip their “yes” votes to “nos” the more ballots he pursues.

“What they’re doing right now is walking the Republicans off the plank,” said Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who is running for Senate and supports Jordan. “We don’t deserve the majority. We go along with the plan to give the Democrats control over the House of Representatives. It is a giant betrayal.”

Passing the resolution — which was drafted by moderate Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) and largely backed by the group he chairs, the centrist Republican Governance Group — would require significant Democrat votes to ensure that McHenry can begin scheduling floor votes.

Even Jordan, who co-founded the House Freedom Caucus a decade ago, could not convince his far-right friends, who have been opposed to empowering McHenry, to back the idea. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), the current chair of the Freedom Caucus, said he wouldn’t, and when asked if Jordan’s support could persuade him, Perry replied, “We all fall short with the grace of God.”

Republican opponents warned against empowering a speaker with the help of Democrats, an action that has typically and historically been a partisan exercise.

“We shouldn’t be setting this precedent or this will be the way we elect speakers from now on,” Perry said.

A significant number of Democrats would vote in favor of the resolution if it reaches the floor, multiple Democrats said. They are not calling for a power-sharing agreement like far-right lawmakers claim, which would require Republicans to negotiate with Democrats how a consensus speaker could change the House rules to make it work in a more bipartisan way.

Instead, Democrats view reopening the House, after weeks of a speaker stalemate, without Jordan and the MAGA base as a win. They can say they helped fund the government and take up military aid to Israel and Ukraine, even if it meant voting for a temporary Republican speaker of the House.

McHenry, they note, voted to certify the 2020 presidential election when 139 House Republicans didn’t. He negotiated the debt ceiling deal with President Biden earlier this year, and he advocated for keeping the government open when faced with a shutdown last month.

Furthermore, if Jordan remains the Republican designee for speaker and he continues to try to win, Democrats can still use him as a foil and paint the entire party as extremists whose leader is an election denier. Jordan is a key ally to former president Donald Trump and his effort to overturn the 2020 election. He also rejected a subpoena from the congressional panel tasked with investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.), who has pledged to continue voting against Jordan, had hoped that Jordan would do the “honorable thing” and step down as the Republican speaker designee amid this stalemate.

“Look,” Rutherford said. “Steve Scalise beat him in a head-to-head race in the conference, and he refused to accept the outcome of that race. He broke the rules, didn’t follow the majority vote, and now he wants us to.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Stonewall Jordan marches Republicans into the wilderness"

Quote

After Jim Jordan’s second failed attempt to become speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Garcia, a swing-district Republican from California, stepped off the House floor and into the 19th century.

“Clearly, what we’re doing right now is not working,” he told a few of us reporters on Wednesday as he exited the Speaker’s Lobby. “So we’ve got to get a different approach here.”

Such as?

“It sounds silly, but let’s go to Gettysburg or something,” Garcia proposed, “so that the Republican Party can once again remember why we do what we do.”

Not silly at all! What better way for feuding Republicans to hone tactics for their party’s civil war than to go to the site of the bloodiest battle of the real Civil War? They could spend a pleasant day celebrating their ineffectiveness by reenacting Pickett’s Charge.

Alas, getting to Pennsylvania might be too much of a logistical challenge for a group that can’t even organize lunch. Republicans scheduled a caucus meeting for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Capitol basement after the day’s failed vote, and I watched staffers wheel in a cart piled high with pizza boxes. But the meeting never happened, and the pies were scavenged by staffers, police and reporters.

Garcia proposed that his colleagues could instead “do an off-site” nearby, either at Manassas or “somewhere else.” I suggest they head down I-95 to a Civil War site whose name perfectly matches the Republicans’ current situation: The Battle of the Wilderness.

Almost a year ago, voters entrusted Republicans with control of the House. And this is what they have done with it:

Fifteen rounds of voting to choose a speaker in January. Nine months of lurching between crises and failed votes on the House floor. A march to impeach President Biden on fabricated charges. The ouster of the speaker. A successful coup to topple the man Republicans nominated to replace the ousted speaker. Two failed speaker votes (and counting) on the House floor for the man who led the coup. Seventeen days (and counting) without a functioning House of Representatives at a time of two wars and a looming government shutdown. And no solution in sight.

Last week, I likened the House Republicans’ governance to a goat rodeo, but the comparison was grossly unfair — to ruminants. The House majority is paralyzed, unable to govern and unwilling to work with Democrats for the good of the institution or the country.

Rep. Debbie Lesko, a Republican from Arizona, issued a statement on Tuesday evening announcing that she would not run for reelection. “Right now,” she wrote, “Washington, D.C. is broken.”

No, Congresswoman. Washington isn’t broken. The House of Representatives is broken — because you and your Republican colleagues broke it.

If there were any remaining doubt about this, you need only look at what Lesko and 199 of her Republican colleagues did on the House floor just four hours before she sent out her Washington-is-broken retirement missive. They voted to elect as speaker of the House:

• An instigator of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and facilitator of Donald Trump’s attempted coup who defied a duly-issued subpoena from the congressional committee investigating the insurrection.
• A legislator who hasn’t enacted any legislation in his 16 years in Congress — but who issued 45 subpoenas this year alone.
• A thuggish bully described as a “legislative terrorist” by one of his predecessors, former Republican speaker John Boehner.

Now, that member of Congress, Jordan, true to form, is terrorizing fellow House Republicans who won’t support him for speaker. Jordan-allied lawmakers, conservative activists and right-wing media figures such as Sean Hannity and Steve Bannon have led an intimidation campaign of phone harassment, social media attacks and threats.

On Thursday morning, Rep. Drew Ferguson (Ga.) said that after he voted against Jordan on the second ballot, “my family and I started receiving death threats.” He had switched his vote away from Jordan in the first place because of the “threatening tactics and pressure campaigns Jordan and his allies were using.”

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), who, after voting for Jordan on the floor on Tuesday, withdrew her support on Wednesday, said she, too, received “credible death threats” and a barrage of abusive calls. “One thing I cannot stomach, or support, is a bully,” she said in a statement.

Rep. Nick LaLota (N.Y.), a Jordan foe, posted one of the obscene death threats he had received. Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.), another Jordan opponent, reported that even his wife had received threatening emails and texts, and vulgar voice messages, some of which he shared with Politico’s Olivia Beavers.

Officially, Jordan condemned the threats, yet they kept coming. These are the same sorts of threats that have been visited on Jordan’s usual opponents — Democratic lawmakers and targets of his committee probes — for years.

Fortunately, on Tuesday, 20 courageous Republicans stood in the breach and blocked Jordan’s terrorist takeover of the speaker’s gavel. But this also means that 200 House Republicans — including all members of GOP leadership and several self-styled moderates — voted for an extremist takeover of their majority. This was no aberration: The next day, 199 of them did it again in a second vote.

It’s no longer a matter of the Republican establishment being disrupted by fanatics. As this week’s votes show, the fanatics now are the establishment. It was the equivalent of 90 percent of House Democrats nominating Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib to be speaker — except no member of “the Squad” ever fomented an attack on the Capitol.

On Thursday, Jordan called off what would have been a third failed vote on the House floor. Instead, he backed a plan to expand the powers of the temporary speaker, Patrick McHenry (N.C.), to allow the House to function for the next three months — while Jordan would spend that time putting thumbscrews to the holdouts.

This caused the Republican caucus, meeting once more in the Capitol basement, to erupt in furor. Jordan’s foes didn’t want him to remain as the speaker nominee. And Jordan’s hard-line supporters didn’t want to reopen the House.

Rep. Jim Banks (Ind.) burst out of the meeting calling the idea “the biggest F.U. to Republican voters I’ve ever seen.”

Rep. Bob Good (Va.) decried an “unconstitutional” and “highly dangerous coalition government arrangement with Democrats.”

Rep. Troy Nehls (Tex.) renewed his call to make Trump the speaker.

Gettysburg is sounding better and better.

The confusion is so deep that even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) is starting to make sense. Congresswoman Jewish Space Lasers left a GOP caucus meeting early this week, telling a group of us that it was “a venting session” with “mostly a lot of arguing” and “just airing grievances” — much like “every single meeting” lately.

This was true enough. At the conference meeting Greene left, Rep. Victoria Spartz (Ind.), known for constantly changing her positions and making bizarre threats, reportedly broke into tears as she delivered an incomprehensible speech to her colleagues. “I’ve never wasted so much time, said Greene. “Even on vacation, I’m busier.”

On social media, Rep. Mike Collins (Ga.) has been mocking his Republican colleagues’ glacial pace:

“Looking forward to clocking in around lunchtime today. No need to rush getting a speaker!”

“I miss the good ole days when we used to do 2-3 votes a day for speaker. Gets it done faster.”

And: “If we all get a chance to be voted on as speaker, are we going alphabetically or by class? Trying to plan Thanksgiving travel.”

“My new favorite member of Congress,” someone replied.

“Low bar!” observed Collins.

Steve Scalise won the Republican nomination for speaker fair and square last week, earning 113 votes to Jordan’s 99. But Jordan’s supporters refused to back the majority leader. Scalise (La.) withdrew — “kneecapped” by Jordan’s forces, as Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) put it. “It was the most egregious act against a sitting member of our conference I have witnessed in my thirteen years of service.”

After Scalise withdrew, House Republicans launched into one of their now-frequent episodes of self-loathing. Among the ways lawmakers described their own caucus to reporters: “A ship that doesn’t have a rudder.” “We need to … get our heads out of our rear end.” “A broken conference.” “All thrust and no vector.” “A bunch of idiots.” “Pretty dysfunctional.”

Things were so desperate that Austin Scott nearly got elected speaker — by accident.

“When I woke up this morning, I had no intention of doing this,” the little-known GOP backbencher from Georgia told reporters last Friday morning. “Actually, I don’t necessarily want to be speaker of the House.”

But he threw his hat into the ring anyway, to give his Republican colleagues at least some alternative to Jordan. And so great was the animosity toward Jordan that 81 Republicans threw their support behind Scott, who even some Capitol Hill veterans couldn’t have picked out of a lineup.

In the hallways of the Longworth House Office Building, where Republicans were meeting in the Ways and Means Committee room, order was unraveling. Indicted Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) emerged from the office of Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) carrying an infant. Was it his baby?

“Not yet,” the famous prevaricator answered. (The child apparently belonged to a staffer.)

An anti-Israel activist took this moment to harass Santos over “genocide of the Palestinians.” And the attention-loving Santos, after handing off the baby, returned to confront the activist in front of a mob of reporters. “He is a f---ing terrorist sympathizer!” Santos screamed to the journalists, also calling his heckler “human scum.”

After the caucus meeting, Jordan’s allies fanned out to begin their intimidation campaign. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told us that opponents’ “phones are going to be lit up.”

And so they were. On Sunday, a Fox News producer for Sean Hannity sent an intimidating email to the holdouts — or “snowflakes,” as Hannity called them on air — that was intercepted by Axios’s Juliegrace Brufke. Hannity also provided phone numbers so his audience could harass Jordan’s foes.

On Monday, many of Jordan’s opponents, an assortment of institutionalists and moderates, did what they had done all year when confronted with the far-right’s threats: They wilted. For example, Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) had called herself a “hell no” who would “absolutely not” back Jordan. But after the speaker-designate and his thugs gave her the treatment, Wagner said Jordan “has allayed my concerns.”

Republican whip Tom Emmer (Minn.), a notoriously inept vote-counter during McCarthy’s speakership, predicted victory for Jordan: “We’re going to have a speaker tomorrow.”

They didn’t.

Jordan bullied most of his opponents into submission. But a brave band still opposed him: a combination of lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee (Jordan routinely votes against their appropriations bills); swing-district moderates (who fear the extremist label Jordan would give them); and a few old-bull institutionalists (who actually care about things such as honoring election results).

A leader of the never-Jordan resistance, Bacon was looking appropriately battered on Monday night, with a scabbed-over wound on his right cheek. “I just can’t abide by the fact that a small group violated the rules to get what they wanted,” he told a group of us. “So I think we’ve got to have consequences and you’ve got to stand up for that. … You just can’t cave in.”

Still, he was dreading the abuse he would receive from the Jordan forces during the alphabetical roll call on the floor. “Maybe I could change my name to Zacon,” he wondered aloud.

Winning over the remaining holdouts required serious persuasion, but Jordan knew only how to bully. “You can’t have the same style with everybody,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a Jordan ally, admitted to a group of us. “I think that some of it did backfire.”

“Jim is the voice of the American people who have felt voiceless,” House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) told the House during her speech nominating Jordan on Tuesday, “whether on the wrestling mat or in the committee room.”

The Democrats erupted in hoots. Was Stefanik trying to remind everybody of the many allegations that Jordan, as a college wrestling coach, had turned a blind eye to sexual assaults against athletes?

Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the Democratic Conference chair, countered that Jordan was “the architect of a nationwide abortion ban, a vocal election denier and an insurrectionist.”

Jordan laughed.

Aguilar pointed out that Jordan “has not passed a single bill” in Congress.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led McCarthy’s ouster, applauded.

Each “no” vote against the Republican nominee sent a murmur rippling through the chamber.

As in January, the vote ended with the now common refrain: “A speaker has not been elected.”

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters it was time to convene “the Bourbon and Cigar Caucus.”

Jordan made only a perfunctory attempt at buttonholing a few of his opponents on the floor. He and his staff spent the afternoon trying to blame Scalise for his failure.

On Tuesday night, as his allies continued threatening holdouts, Jordan posted an appeal for unity: “We must stop attacking each other and come together.” For him.

Inconveniently, Gaetz shattered this phony call for harmony with a fundraising email: “RINO’s are working with RADICAL DEMOCRATS like AOC, ILHAN OMAR and RASHIDA TLAIB to BLOCK JIM JORDAN from becoming SPEAKER!!”

After an angry retort from Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), a Jordan opponent, Gaetz, hawker of hatred, blamed “a vendor.”

But the holdouts still weren’t buying a Jordan speakership.

“The question now occurs … ” McHenry began on Wednesday afternoon, before catching himself. “The question now recurs, on the election of a speaker.”

Once again, Jordan lost the vote before the alphabetical roll call made it out of the D’s. He swung the votes of two holdouts but gained four new opponents. One Jordan opponent voted for Boehner — to cheers from the Democrats. Another voted for Candice Miller, the public works commissioner of Macomb County, Mich. — momentarily baffling the clerk.

No one said they had to be rational. After voting for Emmer for speaker in the first ballot, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) went on CNN.

“Do you really want Tom Emmer to be speaker?” host Dana Bash asked.

“No, I don’t,” Buck replied. “I don’t like Tom Emmer. I figured this would be the worst job in America.”

Friends don’t let friends become speaker of the House.

Jordan planned to force the House to take a third speakership ballot on Thursday, but, facing another certain loss, he instead assembled Republicans in the Capitol basement for another closed-door screaming match.

Inside, lawmakers reportedly came close to blows. Gaetz stood to interrupt McCarthy, who told the Florida congressman to sit down, and “the entire conference screamed at him,” McCarthy said. Some demanded Jordan end his speakership bid; Jordan refused. Some vented about the death threats against Jordan’s opponents. And many denounced the plan to give McHenry temporary powers to allow the House to function. After four hours, the caucus shelved its just-hatched plan to empower McHenry, and Jordan said he would force another speaker vote on the floor.

Republicans were back in the wilderness.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]