McCarthy has officially been voted out as Speaker, and they are now making committees to decide who the next speaker will be. So…. On to the next DC drama.
For Speaker of the House, Republicans always choose the Republican who is the most like the Democrats. I suspect this is because they want to guard against accidentally doing something constructive with their GOP majority.
Jim Jordan backed McCarthy last time and somehow garnered a few votes for himself. Don’t know if Jordan even wants the job but I think if Biden and Harris bite the dust, he’d protect the big seat in the oval office fairly well until election time.
Kevin McCarthy just held a long news conference and announced he will not run for speaker again. If anyone here is worried that his ego was hurt by the vote today I can assure you that he still thinks just as much of himself as he ever did. Obviously, I never liked him. I’m just concerned that voting him out in the middle of the term could be even worse. A lot of people are mentioning Steve Scalise from Louisiana to replace McCarthy.
I tried not to follow politics too closely. But it seems to me that republicans just had the shoot out at okay corral, or better yet Shoot themselves in the foot reload and shoot the other foot. Any Momentum they may had for the coming elections maybe squished.
McCarthy needed to go. With GOP Speakers like him, we may as well have kept Pelosi as Speaker. Elected Republicans like to ensure that Democrats remain in charge regardless of who has the majority. I don't have a lot of faith in Republicans voting in anyone who will be significantly better, but I hope I'm wrong.
It is sounding more and more like President Trump might actually accept a nomination for Speaker of the House . He is said to have tentatively agreed to do whatever he can to help the Republican Party get through this situation, and would probably accept the role if he was voted in. Even Politico , which is pretty leftwing, was talking about the fact that Trump is going to DC to discuss the idea.
I now have heard it proposed by friends of Trump that he could be appointed as interim Speaker until a permanent Speaker is elected. That seems a good solution if it is to be at all. The Speakership might remove him from his rally schedule, which is his big strength, and he continues to gain in all the polls...to the despair of those who attack him. The Democrat-controlled cities are now demanding that Biden build the wall and he seems to be willing to comply as his coalition disintegrates. Since this would be him moving away from his signature campaign issue, it would be a significant defeat for Biden and the Democrats.
What I’m posting is just some disjointed thoughts I have on getting a new speaker. I invite everyone to point out the holes in them. Whoever the eventual new speaker candidates turn out to be they will have to have a majority of the total members of the House. So far, Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise are the two announced candidates. I don’t know that either one could get enough votes. Scalise is more moderate. Maybe Trump could be appointed interim speaker but I don’t see the wisdom of him getting involved at all. Wouldn’t Trump being interim speaker just inflame the situation even more than it already is or is that the reason for doing it? I have to admit I’ve taken a little pleasure in seeing McCarthy kicked out and Pelosi losing her office. Btw, the buzz is that she was able to keep that office because she had made a deal with McCarthy to protect him if Gaetz tried to vote him out. She didn’t keep her part of the bargain. If that deal really happened, that alone was enough of a reason to vote McCarthy out IMO. Realistically, how could Trump get enough votes to be elected as permanent speaker? In a perfect world I would like to see Jordan elected and let’s see if he can make a difference in cutting spending.
I always figured that it was because, with McCarthy as Speaker, there was no real reason to make a change to the office. The Democrats were still in charge.