U.S. Politics January 2023: Kevin McCarthy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Life

I dunno, the Clown Prince of Crime might.

“Who’s on first?”

“No one here really knows what baseball is”

This version of the GOP seems like a meme stock version of a political party.

"give it to me"

"No"

"give it to me"

"No"

"give it to me"

"No"

"give it to me"

"No"

“Would you like a slice of cake?”

*accepts plate of cake, throws it across the toom*

it is extremely funny to see trump warn republicans not to embarrass themselves. he has used toilet paper from the 1980s stuck to the bottom of his shoes

i took the Trump thing as a sign that they had worked it out and he could get some easy points on top of it

... haha

I wonder if they'll just nominate a different third guy each time, until they've run through the entire GOP caucus

why don't the democrats throw him a few votes. yknow for the norms.

This time we nominate Rick Lazio

only Hastert can save us

not that trump ever makes sense, but...clearly whoever "wins" the speakership is going to endure living hell and be loathed from all sides. you'd think trump would support one of the freedom caucus people who have been kissing his ass for the last several years, just because there's no way they'll win. that way he could spend the next 2 years saying that if only his recommendation had been picked, the u.s. would be #1 and so great. instead he'll have to fall back on his prediction that "Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a GREAT JOB — JUST WATCH!”

Yep that makes more sense than whatever is going on here. Has team Trump calculated that he needs to make a run at the center right? What does that look like....

This is a helluva ruse to stop Santos from getting sworn in before the FBI arrives

They're stuck in McDonald's drive thru, one or two more votes should do it

i am enjoying this trend of some of the voice votes turning into out of control yodels, as the voting rounds carry on.

Couldn’t they broker some sort of time-sharing arrangement, like in ABC order every house Republican gets to be speaker for a calendar week?

is there a Norm in the house

Or, nevermind - trading off every day

so, donalds voted from himself, which, props to him.

but now it's starting to make me doubt the sincerity of the frequent freedom caucus claim that they want to vote for someone who didn't seek the position. people like george washington. and...*coughs*...jim jordan

Karl, please! You can never doubt the sincerity of the Freedom Caucus.

Biden notes that newly elected Rep. @GregLandsman couldn't come to bridge because of ongoing votes:

“He's dealing with trying to figure out who's gonna be the next speaker… Wish him lot of luck. He may be the first freshman ever elected Speaker of the House representatives.”

— Justin Sink (@justinsink) January 4, 2023

So if McCarthy withdrew — which I know isn't likely — is there some other actual candidate who could get enough GOP votes? It seems kind of crazy for them to be going through all this when there's no serious alternative.

Scalise was the name floated, but who knows.

PaulRyanBarbell.jpg

Victoria Spartz (R-IN) must have someone else in mind. she just voted "present" (which costs McCarthy another vote), so i guess she didn't want to vote for Donalds, either.

Spartz_Drinks_Sparks.bmp

Watch, they'll end up picking Trump.

With the Spartz "present" vote, McCarthy gets his lowest vote total yet on this round!

This seems to be pure speculation, but:

My money is on Rep. Patrick McHenry of NC. Was a fire-breather, now an operator with a bow-tied pseudo-intellectual act that is viewed by wingnuts as Gingrichesque. @DavidCornDC https://t.co/43JK9lu4mo

— Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter) January 3, 2023

is there any reason they won't just repeat day 1 - keep nominating Donalds, similar vote margins, then it's time to adjourn for some footlongs at subway?

*footlings

they should nominate one of the children in the rotunda. do they want the position? no. check. do they have a basic respect for governmance? no, they don't even know what that means yet. check. do they want to be on tv? sure, check. are they willing to kick and scream on the floor until they get their way, even if they don't even remember what set them off in the first place? at least one of these kids does, check. let the children run the show!

xp The main reason is that it keeps them from the important work of sweeping away the last remnants of the old Republic.

* governmancer, LVL9

they could probably all agree on electing a footlong

what about Jared from Subway? he and Gaetz are natural allies

tell me he's in jail still

The NYT reporters should never describe Matt Gaetz as "gesticulating with great force."

lol one GOP voter voted present, so as a result, Jeffries only missed by 5 votes this time

like McCarthy keeps saying he's close but he's lost a vote since yesterday and that's the extent of his progress.

Kevin's on track. going backwards is what the Republican party is all about

the next pivot is "do we really need a House of Representatives"

here we go again. round 5.

mccarthy is nominated. his nominator describes himself as "an army ranger and business guy", starts with "why would i nominate mccarthy?" and then talks about the dangers of dehumanizing opponents (in his own party). now he's talking about americans sending in reinforcements. he needs to learn about football as well, get the ball deep into the red zone and then go for 2. fuck going for one. go for 2.

not having a rule reducing the number of candidates each time is the problem, like if you could nominate an unlimited amount of people in round 1, then top 3 go to round 2, then top 2 from then on, that would probably solve this thing, but the way it is, I think we're headed for 735 rounds.

describes himself as "an army ranger and business guy"

that won't fly with QAnon. they know that the army and business are in cahoots to groom young men and pretend to sell pizza

this nomination speech for mccarthy has, at least twice now, spoken of people in his own party "cannot trust mccarthy". i like this message, he should keep repeating it

xp follow the pepperoni trail!

McCarthy told CNN earlier that he was not worried if his opposition grew on the fourth ballot. “It doesn’t matter — I have the most votes,” he said.

second-most

Boebert with the nom!

Meanwhile I just saw a clip of Jeffries speaking, which I guess I'd never seen before, and man his hand gestures are super annoying and distracting. Another one of these guys who studied the Bill Clinton Body Language book and just repeats it robotically. (Small complaint, I know, but I hate when politicians can't even seem human in front of a camera.)