21 thoughts on “And the US House Speaker selection process drags on…”

  1. Is that the pedophile, Gaetz? At least we are getting some comedy from the incompetency of Republicans. The Trump faction needs to hit the road.

    1. “I think the House is in a lot better place with some of the work that’s been done to democratize power out of the speakership and into the membership,” Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told reporters Friday afternoon after lawmakers voted to adjourn. “That’s been our goal.”

      Gaetz is one of six Republicans — along with Matthew M. Rosendale (Mont.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and Bob Good (Va.) — who voted against McCarthy on the 13th ballot. He reiterated that he wanted either to see McCarthy defeated or to change House rules so that McCarthy was imprisoned in “a functional straitjacket.”

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/06/house-speaker-votes-mccarthy-adjourn/

    2. Gaetz told Ocasio-Cortez that McCarthy has been telling Republicans that he’ll be able to cut a deal with Democrats to vote present, enabling him to win a majority of those present and voting, according to Ocasio-Cortez. She told Gaetz that wasn’t happening, and also double-checked with Democratic party leadership, confirming there’d be no side deal.

      “McCarthy was suggesting he could get Dems to walk away to lower his threshold,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Intercept of her conversation with Gaetz on McCarthy’s failed ploy. “And I fact checked and said absolutely not.”

      https://theintercept.com/2023/01/03/kevin-mccarthy-aoc-matt-gaetz-speaker/

    3. “When we come back tonight, we’ll have the votes to get this done once and for all. It just reminds me of what my father always told me, it’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish,” McCarthy told reporters.

      https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/politics/mccarthy-speaker-fight-friday/index.html

      It just reminds me of what my father always told me: “Kevin McCarthy will say or do anything to further his own personal power, son. Don’t believe a word that comes out of his crooked, lying mouth.”

  2. “He’s just a guy who’s about power first, and he’ll do whatever it takes to maintain power, and that’s why the twenty members don’t trust him. It’s why I don’t trust him, because they know what he is and they know what he’ll do. He’ll betray them to the extent that he’s made any promises to them. He’ll betray them the first chance he gets, and then lie about it. He has no problem doing that. He’s a compulsive liar. Always has been.”

    https://reason.com/2023/01/05/justin-amash-kevin-mccarthy-is-a-compulsive-liar-who-cares-only-about-power/

      1. Dusty has been a breath of fresh air in all this and one of the adults in the room. He is following the Reagan doctrine well while the Band of 20 have been firebombing the process.

        1. No “Band of 20” ever existed. They’re twenty individual representatives, and your comment resembles “firebombing” more than their opposition to an untrustworthy speaker candidate does.

      2. When McCarthy is exhausted and throws in the towel, Dusty can solve this. He can offer up a former House member. He should nominate Kristi Noem for Speaker.

        She deserves it.

  3. It’s interesting that this gridlock is going on at the same time my U.S. History students studied George Washington’s Farewell Address. We used the Speaker battle to justify his warning about political parties. 😉

    1. IMO recent passage of 1.7 trillion Omnibus passed with no consideration to budget/debt-ceiling, with 0 floor debate or amendments is a more salient example of “unprincipled men…enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government”

      Washington would be supportive of the 20. I weep for your students. Lazy and uninspired take by you here.

      1. Well… that’s like… your opinion, man. And like most opinions without a name, I tend to “File 13” them.

        You, sir (or madam), need to grow a sense of humor.

        And now that you’ve bored me, I shall bid you adieu.

          1. Ah! Body Shaming!!! I’m so struck and hurt, I shall recant everything I said and make amends to you and beg for your forgiveness.

            Actually, hard pass.

            Please, keep showing your hindquarters to all of cyberspace. But please… if you’re going to go with personal attacks over logical, reasoned arguments, at least use your brain and come up with something a little more creative and original.

  4. I believe it was written or stated on a show that McCarthy wants he Speaker’s position “more than anything else”. To me, that’s “Self above Service” and I have no respect or need for any elected or appointed political figure who puts him or her self in that category. The 9th vote is about to get underway and Jeffries’ count remains at 212. McCarthy has lost a vote almost every round and who knows…maybe they want to go another 201 rounds to get another representative to get to 218!

    1. Maybe 20 narcissists should recognize they are less than 10% of the caucus and get to the process of governing. Also: how’s that unrepentant racism towards natives going? Good? Hope not.

      1. the democrats meanwhile are just biding their time, getting set to administer lessons about real hardball scorched-earth politics this session. it’ll be interesting to see this trump gang scrambling back to fill the holes they’re leaving in the shield wall.

        1. Problematically, this will just feed more into their victim complex. Every time people dont acquiesce to their latest whim they cry foul. Get off the cross; we need the wood.

  5. I have been watching some of this and have come to the conclusion that the underlying problem is that we have too many representatives in Congress. There’s just too many of them to get anything done.
    There’s not enough oxygen in that hall to go around

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