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Hearing Gaetz complain about Jordan being “ knifed by his fellow Republicans” is beyond parody. |
Well, just from my point of view, I think the belief in institutionalists in the GOP has been unfounded since the days of Unitary Executive Theory and other right wing attempts at circumventing the Constitution. I was pleasantly surprised to hear an interview recently with a House member from Arkansas of all places advocating for following the process, regardless of the result. (5)>>Still, this is not a new monster that the GOP has created. It's been a long time coming, and I think anyone who really follows this stuff could have seen it coming since the "ah shucks" populism of George W took root.With the removal on October 20 of Jim Jordan as House Republican Speaker-Designate (the GOP conference’s nominee to become Speaker), replacing previous House Speaker-Designate Steve Scalise, who in turn sought to succeed actual House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, there’s absolutely no way to tell who if anyone will be able to muster the 217 votes necessary to seize the slippery gavel that McCarthy was forced to relinquish on October 3.I told folks the biggest challenge to giving him more powers or electing him to Speaker was that he is a sane person and no sane person wants this impossible job.He has one responsibility right now: gavel in the election of the Speaker, and even just this job is like herding feral cats. (6)>>The extreme instability of the situation means it may be a good idea to look at what would happen if the House is Speakerless for an extended period of time.The one critical piece of business that the House must deal with is annual appropriations, the measures required to authorize all but the most essential government spending. Right now the federal government is operating under a stopgap spending bill which was the immediate cause of McCarthy’s demise after he negotiated it with the Biden administration and Senate Democrats and then passed it in the House with more Democratic than Republican votes. It expires on November 17. Yes. It's so against the interests of their own party, it's insane.Man it's wonderful that they can't all get along. The longer and harder they squabble, the more the institutionalists will be ready to get behind a Democrat to get something done. I think they'll have to choose a more moderate democrat though.I expect them to give in a couple weeks into the shutdown. It should be nonstop public dysfunction til then.
NOTES AND COMMENTS :
(1)>>Gaetz motioned to vacate was because McCarthy worked with Dems to NOT shut down the government. Another wrinkle though, after the motion to vacate, another member can make a motion to table -- that means the motion to vacate is set aside. I think this is the path most likely to lead to Dems casting a vote that protects McCarthy. They're not voting to keep him (technically), just voting to not deal with this nonsense. Why is it if democrats make a mistake and get blamed for it it hurts them for a long time, people quickly lose trust in them, example this whole Menendez thing could really hurt them. but some Republicans can make mistakes do awful things and then get re elected or just walk it off like nothing happened.A government shut down before elections (this is why the plan only covered 45 days, it nudged it past this year's elections) is not a good thing for anyone. Especially if there isn't a replacement speaker any time soon (which given the situation isn't unlikely).As a rule people don't care why you stabbed them, they just care they you did. The GOP may be hurt more but it be ballsy for the democratic party to, at large, to opt for this.Gaetz actively annoys the crap out of McCarthy (like trying to remove him from speaker), doesn't get along with large portions of his own party, and his sex trafficking shit means McCarthy has the excuse to keep anyone from voting no just to screw with him. He's in shorts more embarrassing, and more annoying, then Greene.(2)>>Who's going to get the next wave of BILLIONS of Dollars ???? Ukraine or Israel ???? THE IRONY NOW. Jesus that's a lot of money/goods/weapons.We are led by politicians who work for lobby groups. They place more emphasis in supporting foreign governments and citizens instead of us. A third part of my country's GDP. Well, you see, all of our politicians are owned by the military industrial complex and none actually care about you. However, they will all lie to your face so you hear what you want to hear. Erm, not exactly. There's a way for the House to push a bill through. Basically a vote needs to be taken to let the temporary speaker act on a specific bill. It's not something that even gets discussed much, because being unable to elect a speaker is... Rare In fact it's why the two aid packages are being combined. The hope is that enough people want the Israel aid to happen that they'll stop complaining about Ukraine and it'll go through.(2.1)>>Joe Biden is trying to sweeten his pitch for more money .I don't understand how we can just give away 100bn yet can't pay workers a living wage what the actual fuck. Yes I understand there are problems out there yet we have issues right here in the USA. There's a war waging south of the border.Homes are expensive af. Wages stagnate Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: they got money for war but they can't feed the poor. On top of the $4 billion paid annually to Israel?That would be a huge jump whatever proportion of that is Israeli.Any of it going to rebuild Gaza?Why do we always stick out nose in other countries business? 100B could go a long way here in the USA for our starving children, our homeless, our VA, Student loans… idk maybe I’m selfish but I don’t get why we can’t let them figure out their own problems.(3)>>It's all on purpose to create enough CHAOS in the American Government so any deal on the spending crisis on the Debt Ceiling could be stopped. Political debates over the debt ceiling and government shutdowns can be confusing for the public. This primer is intended to clarify the difference between the debt ceiling and a government shutdown while underscoring why the current situation is so fraught.Debt ceiling confrontations, unthinkable for most of US history, have become a feature of modern American politics. Only a few decades ago, the debt ceiling was adjusted as a matter of routine. But increasing polarization of American politics has made the debt ceiling a powerful weapon of political brinkmanship—waiting until the last minute to raise it.he most concerning scenario would entail the government failing to make scheduled payments of interest and principal on existing US debt because the government would have run out of cash to make those payments. A default in such payments would damage the standing of the federal government in financial markets and diminish the perceived trustworthiness of US debt in the eyes of worldwide participants in financial markets. Global financial markets might plunge into uncertainty and chaos, with unknown—and unknowable—consequences.(4)>> “was cussing at him,” and telling Gaetz “it’s all his fault,”. All of the Democrats voted against that rule change that McCarthy allowed as a condition of gaining the Speakership. But Matt asked them to help him oust McCarthy, and broke the rule that they never asked the Dems for anything. Won’t it be hysterical if a centralist GOP nominee, asks the Dems to vote him/her in. He also could have put the funding for ukraine vote up before the speaker one.But he did speaker first to try to for e dems to vote for him by using ukraine funding as leverage because he knew if dems didn't save him they knew there wouldn't ever be another speaker. The fact that the fights are being reported on by the participants, so all the world can see, only underscores the amount of dysfunction. I'm sure heated arguments occur on both sides, but the Democrats know better than to allow them to leak out in real time. McCarthy scolds Gaetz in GOP meeting: ‘Sit your ass down’. They are dysfunctional, corrupt and inept as he is. Nothing gets done because of infighting and fracturing of the party. GOP and Maga GOP are not the same. It's like oil and water.McCarthy tells Gaetz in GOP meeting: ‘Sit your ass down’-The Hill“Gaetz added. “I’m not a very emotional person, I’m a lawyer by trade”Funny, Gaetz has no experience as a lawyer except as a defendant in DUI, sexual assault & extortion charges. McCarthy could have made a deal with the democrats and won the first vote. What heinous concession are the democrats asking for? They want the ability to bring bipartisan bills to the floor for a vote. That’s it. Republicans have an extremely shitty rule where when they have the majority in the house, they will only bring Republican-majority pre-approved bills to a vote (so, shitty Republican bills only). They are subverting the will of the people. Fuck McCarthy and literally every Republican in Congress (and elsewhere too) .They don't want any laws passed anyway while Biden is in office because that might make him look good in some way and help him win re-election. Their whole agenda is to create chaos so Trump will win again because the general public is perceived as so unaware of how the political process actually works and will always blame the President and his party when things don't get done.(5)>>Still, this is not a new monster that the GOP has created. It all started when they alone decided to do brinkmanship politics with the government shutdown. Then some didn’t like it when they didn’t drive over that cliff. In other democracies, if this happen it would trigger a new election. That tempers members of a parliament from feeling adventurous. So I would say that the whole Gaetz-McCarthy thing is mostly due to a flawed implementation of a parliament. But within that flawed implementation, Gaetz is obviously a lit match in a tinder factory.That has got to be one of the absolutely least self aware arguments ever made. That has been their party’s only tactic since Obama, to the point that obstruction, delay, and shutdown are their primary governing strategy. Do you think they may actually be starting to realize how much they suck?I know it’s actually worse than that. They know how damaging it is to the American people, but literally can’t get past the political theater in order to govern because they were never there to govern in the first place. The theatrics is why they were there, and that’s what they are doing. Hire drama queens, get drama. (6)>>The extreme instability of the situation means it may be a good idea to look at what would happen if the House is Speakerless for an extended period of time. It's just funny that this attempt by Gaetz has probably ended Jordan's chances of ever getting to the speakership. Gaetz is holding a bloody knife in his hand as he complains about Jordan getting knifed. Yeah, it happened in 1855-1856. The lead up to the Civil War was just pure political chaos.They weren't able to elect a Speaker for two months.What happens is that... the House can't pass any laws. So the country can't pass any laws. Which basically leaves us without a functional government. 1923. I read it took somewhere around 2 months back then! That's why this is so hilarious and embarrassing for these "conservatives". They just continue to perpetual of MAGA politics. I digress, they cannot assign committees and even finish swearing in members of the house without leadership. If they take all year, they will get NOTHING done (which in actuality is a good thing, keep them infighting and we'll (moderates, who make up 65% of the country still) keep the ship straight). So conspiracy theory: Of the 18 of the 20 Republicans who originally voted against McCarthy (Biggs, Boebert, Crane, Good, Rosendale, Bishop, Brecheen, Cloud, Clyde, Donalds, Gosar, Harris, Paulina Luna, Miller, Norman, Ogles, Perry, and Roy) are members of the Freedom Caucus with Jordan. Gaetz also voted for Jordan, though not actually a member but instead just associated with them. For ballots 1-8 most of them voted for either Biggs, Donalds, or Jordan (or Trump for Gaetz). Some voted for Hern for a couple ballots (who is not Freedom Caucus but if Gaetz voted for him that tells you all you need to know). Then the last 6 hold outs (Biggs, Beobert, Crane, Gaetz, Good, and Rosendale) voted for either Hern, Jordan, or Biggs before voting present to end things. And what did Jordan do this whole time? Like the "team player" he is Jordan voted for McCarthy all 15 rounds and always talked about unity. He kept telling people to vote for McCarthy.Fast forward to the motion to vacate and you have some familiar names in Biggs, Crane, Gaetz, Good, with Buck and Rosendale being new Freedom Caucus additions. The only outliers are Burchett and Mace.In both of those votes the only ones who aren't election deniers are Brecheen, Roy, Mace, and Buck (though he did sow doubt prior to the election).Finally we're at the Speaker votes and we put our tinfoil hats on. Who gets put forward against Scalise? Jordan. And when Scalise gets pressured to step away by Trump and his supporters it's Jordan who steps in. Jordan, who is Freedom Caucus through and through and yet has really toned down going into both votes as if he's trying to appear reasonable. And I think that was the plan all along. Jordan has established himself as a stand out Republican, even if it's not for actually doing his job as a legislator, but he also is known for his aggressive personality. So I believe that the far-right has been waiting for an opportunity to attempt to put one of their own, a prominent, far-right, very pro-Trump, election denier, in the position of Speaker and who better than Jim Jordan? Clearly they wanted an opportunity to remove McCarthy, since they're the ones who pushed to get the one member vacate rule, but they knew whoever they put up in earnest had to be appear reluctant and party focused. So Gaetz took on the role of villain (a rooenhe was spawned to play) which would let Jordan be the hero that saves the conference. If it wasn't for those pesky no spine RINOs...
