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

rumbles in the rotunda

Democratic leaders are urging the rank-and-file to stay united. Amid rumblings that Republicans will try to adjourn when the House convenes at noon, leaders told Democrats during a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning not to help the GOP. They told caucus members to vote against such a motion, forcing Republicans to solve their problems.

haha, sorry one more thing. i was kind of astonished.

“Republicans are the party of ‘never,’ and it's always ‘never’ when they don't like somebody and that's how we failed the country.”

who said it?

marjorie taylor greene, yesterday

She's starting to taste the possibility of larger office, evidently

She should taste a bullet.

Apologies; that was churlish of me.

List of today's nominees released:

A triumverate! They could rotate days.

I wasn't sure who Upton was and I was going to make a joke about Kate Upton would be a good candidate for speaker of the house

but I just discovered that Fred Upton is actually her uncle

small world!

nepo-uncle smh

Fremme Nepo venuncle

Speaking of Nepo Babies:

Trump belatedly spoke out in favor of McCarthy this morning and urged Republicans to turn their fire on Mitch McConnell pic.twitter.com/tKjFWguaX0

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 4, 2023

Some details from yesterday. What a happy bunch!

https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/kevin-mccarthy-the-chaos-speaker

byron donalds is a nominee for this fourth round of voting. chip roy is making the nomination speech. Roy says that republicans judge people by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.

jordan is not a nominee, in this round.

What a statement. Comes across as "most of you wouldn't be ok with a Black man for the job, we're kinda maybe alright with it kinda"

He made a comment about how for the first time two black people were nominated for Speaker, got a round of applause, and then had to add that well we don't see color.

Anyway, looks like McCarthy lost again.

So much for Trump's golden touch!

I wonder if Crazy Nancy Pelosi has packed the jar she kept on her desk that contained Donald Trump's balls.

Gaetz and McCarthy slapfight coming

From Ned’s link:

Crenshaw added that Tuesday’s dysfunction was a bad omen for the next two years and that Democrats are poised to out-maneuver Republicans if the Freedom Caucus continues to rebel against leadership.

“Democrats are way smarter at this game than we are,” he said. “They will all vote in lockstep because they’re smarter than these guys.”

Democrats in array!

Republicans have control of the House of Representatives, but no one has control of the Republicans of the House of Representatives.

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