Will Kevin McCarthy be the first party leader of the majority party in a hundred years to fail to win the speakership on the first ballot? The last time it happened was 1923, when it took nine ballots for Republican Frederick Gillett to finally get the majority needed to become Speaker.
McCarthy’s problem? Enough hard-core extremist wackos are “never McCarthy” are pledging they will never vote for him, to deny him the majority. As a result, McCarthy is trying to dangle all kinds of promises in front of them. He has won over Marjorrhea Traitor Greene, but not Lauren Boebert, which has caused a very public cat fight between these two former allies, with Greene making fun of Boebert for barely hanging onto what should be a safe seat by 500 votes, and Boebert ridiculing Greene about the Jewish space lasers and other things.
Then there are several moderates trying to restore some semblance of sanity to the fracturing party that would be unrecognizable to Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Eisenhower — again, enough to deny McCarthy the needed majority — pledging that they will NOT support him if he caves in to the extremist fringe wingnuts.
What I would love to see would be the Democrats make a deal with the moderate Republicans. The Republicans have the majority, but would the Democrats rather see a sensible traditional Republican as speaker or Kevin McCarthy and a deal with the extremist far right?
Make a deal for the Democrats to agree to vote for a moderate in exchange for a pledge not to carry out the revenge “investigations” (like Hunter Biden’s laptop), not to hold the debt ceiling hostage and to work across the aisle for policies where common ground and common sense compromises can be worked out. With all the Democrats and enough of the moderates, they could defeat the wackos and deny McCarthy the speakership and the Republicans still have a Republican speaker to reflect their party majority.
Will Kevin McCarthy be the first party leader of the majority party in a hundred years to fail to win the speakership on the first ballot? The last time it happened was 1923, when it took nine ballots for Republican Frederick Gillett to finally get the majority needed to become Speaker.
McCarthy’s problem? Enough hard-core extremist wackos are “never McCarthy” are pledging they will never vote for him, to deny him the majority. As a result, McCarthy is trying to dangle all kinds of promises in front of them. He has won over Marjorrhea Traitor Greene, but not Lauren Boebert, which has caused a very public cat fight between these two former allies, with Greene making fun of Boebert for barely hanging onto what should be a safe seat by 500 votes, and Boebert ridiculing Greene about the Jewish space lasers and other things.
Then there are several moderates trying to restore some semblance of sanity to the fracturing party that would be unrecognizable to Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Eisenhower — again, enough to deny McCarthy the needed majority — pledging that they will NOT support him if he caves in to the extremist fringe wingnuts.
What I would love to see would be the Democrats make a deal with the moderate Republicans. The Republicans have the majority, but would the Democrats rather see a sensible traditional Republican as speaker or Kevin McCarthy and a deal with the extremist far right?
Make a deal for the Democrats to agree to vote for a moderate in exchange for a pledge not to carry out the revenge “investigations” (like Hunter Biden’s laptop), not to hold the debt ceiling hostage and to work across the aisle for policies where common ground and common sense compromises can be worked out. With all the Democrats and enough of the moderates, they could defeat the wackos and deny McCarthy the speakership and the Republicans still have a Republican speaker to reflect their party majority.