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

how the fuck is Gaetz not in jail yet?

the american legal system for wealthy people is like a giant battleship. it takes a very long time to turn it in a new direction. but when you finally do, and point it toward justice, you can be assured that someone in the ship will probably press a button that makes it stop for several days, first, and then it might go back to the old direction. it depends on who has more money

motion to adjourn until monday. they'll vote on that now.

so did the right flank promise McCarthy he was good and then Lucy the football away? If so: that kinda rules

during that tense confrontation with mccarthy, i missed this:

At one point a McCarthy ally, Mike Rogers of Alabama, stormed into the huddle and seemed on the brink of violence, but he retreated to a cloakroom off the floor.

kick his ass mike rogers!

i do feel kind of bad for the Hunt guy, who was in DC all week as his wife gave birth to a premature baby, flew to TX and back today, just for this vote that matt gaetz fucked up.

Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) walks away from Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as an altercation with Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) breaks out during a session of the House of Representatives to elect a Speaker of the House. Jack Gruber-USA TODAY @guygruber @usatoday pic.twitter.com/iUiXbdp9RV

— Andrew P. Scott (@apscott) January 7, 2023

Iconic

He’s gonna get fewer votes on Monday

Would love to see one of the football heart attack meatheads in the gop leadership beat the shit out of gaetz on the house floor.

Bring this back https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_of_Charles_Sumner

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, holds her smart phone with former US President Donald Trump on the line, as Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Republican from Montana, waves it off during a meeting of the 118th Congress in the House Chamber on Friday.#SpeakerVote pic.twitter.com/VWvOGfXd9Q

— Al Drago (@Al_Drago) January 7, 2023

looks like the nays have it on the motion to adjourn. we're gonna political party all night

*massive booing from all sides*

Republicans are whipping against adjournment suggesting they’ve found another McCarthy testicle to give someone

the official tally will make that motion to adjourn look way more lopsided than it was. it's at 192 fuck yeah to 242 fuck nay at the moment, constantly being revised toward the nays. but for a moment, at the end of the official voting period, it was tied, 216-216.

Gaetz is flipping, or is telling people he will

GOP chants of "one more time!" on the floor

https://media.tenor.com/teNIvp3Uz-YAAAAM/daft-punk-one-more-time.gif

Gaetz is the one keeping this going, why would he flip now?

1/6 II: The insurrection is coming from inside the House.

god it's crazy this is one of our two parties these guys wanna legislate in the same sense that people go on The Bachelor to find true love

it's a little closer to going on Shark Tank to find investors for your bottle opener business, for some of them

it's very bizarre to watch the jovial atmosphere among the republicans, the laughing, the jokes. Santos is cracking up at various things, people are slapping each other's backs.

Crane votes present, gets an ovation as well. that's how they're going to get out of this - part of the quartet of gigantic dorky assholes (biggs, crane, good, rosendale) are changing their votes to present to lower the threshold. i don't think it'll matter how gaetz votes, now.

https://i.imgur.com/CrA2amh.png

this is the kind of prick Eli Crane is

Asked whether he’d consider changing his vote for Rep.-elect Andy Biggs to a “present” vote — which would deliver the speakership to McCarthy — Rep.-elect Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) said, “Why would I do that?” A reporter asked him whether he had considered voting present at any point. “No, not really,” he said.

then he voted present.

he's the kind of guy who does the "stop hitting yourself" trick, but then he keeps doing it every single day until the end of high school

lol the guy sitting next to Boebert on the aisle facing Rogers is my congressman.

On that note, Minnesota (pun intended) representing this week, with Tom Emmer one of the top puppetmasters and Dean Phillips delivering the cathartic "Wow" nominating Jeffries in the final lap.

Still kinda weird to see practically nobody wearing a mask on the House floor. (I hear Lauren Underwood was.)

Republican Mike Rogers’ anger at Matt Gaetz likely stems from a potential offer, floated by Republican leadership, that would give Gaetz the gavel of a subcommittee on the House Armed Services Committee, according to two people familiar with the dynamics.

Rogers (Ala.) is the expected chair of the Armed Services panel, and believes there are more qualified people to lead the subcommittee than Gaetz, according to one lawmaker.

"Might give you some perspective on why Mike Rogers blew up on the floor,” the lawmaker said.

Gaetz could've been offered the gavel of the subbasement bathroom towel replacement subcommittee and I still would've wanted to deck him

I have to assume he’ll get punched at some point during the next two years

Good luck Kev

What happens if now he can’t pass the rules

chaos will reign

The more chaos hopefully the less permanent damage done. Seems to be the one point of optimism. Hope that ain't Pollyannaing though.

This was probably noted up thread, but in case it wasn’t

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/06/1147256602/jan-6-capitol-attack-biden-citizens-medal

This wasn't all a distraction now was it

If January 6th had in some way been successful this kind of scenario wouldn't have ensued would it?
Like the GOP were prepared to take power now weren't they?
Wouldn't you like a little more revolution right now? Though might swing the wrong way.

Though that would have been them retaining power and making even more of a mess,

I'm so glad I was in bed by 10.

Opening Arguments podcast from yesterday talking about the process of changing over House of Congress sessions/line-ups/whatever.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1mv8BKEJjZ1yvj8BISnU3K?si=993d109348544734

Like, wondering if there was an actual teleological understanding of what the insurrection hoped to achieve taht was in any way coherent.
Lack of Moderate's reaction might seem to question what can be cut out and rejected so can you get rid of all of teh GOP as extraneous. like, innit.

Gaetz is the one keeping this going, why would he flip now?

― frogbs,

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/07/gop-panel-criminal-investigations-00076890

Given the abject failure of past political stunt committees on Benghazi, the Steele dossier, etc, I can't get too worked up about that bullshit. It will get airtime on Fox/Newsmax/etc but mostly fall flat because unlike the Jan. 6 investigation they're not going to turn up anything very substantive. And looking like they're trying to protect the insurrectionists and Trump plays well with only a small slice of the electorate.

What if one member of the ultraconservative faction succeeds in engineering a cult of personality around himself or herself or themselves? Is that impossible to contemplate?

Will this usher in an era of the Weakened Speaker, or Division on the Right and Left Regarding the Institutions of Government? Why are the Institutions of Government not as much a focus as the Constitution? Are they more difficult to measure because they include practice? Could they be a rallying point along the same lines for the Left? But they would need to be approached critically (cf. the filibuster).

inspiring, dems know the alphabet

hakeem jeffries just went from A thru Z in his speech pic.twitter.com/7wLi2pcIAu

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 7, 2023

https://i.imgur.com/ptg2pNl.jpeg

slay queen

So supposedly they're gonna do the rules vote tonight? Should be a hoot.

be amusing when Kevin doesn't help deliver on any of the promised changes

democracy is the worst form of government except for alphabetization

era of the Weakened Speaker

I read this at first as "Weekend Speaker," which might not be a bad idea.