Chaos in the GOP

[billvon 2,427]

So now we are back to total chaos in the House of Representatives, courtesy of Matt Gaetz.  They have no (permanent) speaker, and so many republicans are throwing so many absurd replacement suggestions at the wall that will be a long time before anything changes.  Trump even came up.  I am sure we'll be hearing about George Santos, Ted Nugent or Diamond and/or Silk next.

I am reminded of a speech some time back by former president Bill Clinton: "The Republicans are pretty simple actually, and pretty straightforward. They say, ‘I want you to be very miserable, and I want you to be very angry. And I want you to vote for us, and we’ll make it worse, but we’ll blame them.' "

And that is exactly what they are doing.  Darrell Issa is blaming all the current chaos on Democrats.  The NRCC said that "democrats voted en masse following their extreme leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to throw the House into chaos."  Garret Graves even claimed that Gaetz was secretly under the control of Ocasio-Cortez; she said that Gaetz “just got schooled by AOC and others; he was totally manipulated into doing this.”

Who knew that AOC was at the same time a vacuous airhead and a savvy political mastermind, able to manipulate key republicans to do her bidding?

And despite republicans publicly blaming democrats (and AOC) for ousting McCarthy, internally they are going after Gaetz.  Graves said an ouster of Gaetz would be “pursued in the conference."  Mike Lawler said he wants to hit Gaetz “square between the eyes” with the speaker’s gavel. Don Bacon said Gaetz is "not a republican."   Mike Pence's chief of staff said “Matt Gaetz, to say he came here as a fiscal crusader . . . it’s more likely he came here for the teenage interns on Capitol Hill, to be honest.”

Markwayne Muller had this to say:

"This is a guy that didn’t have, the media didn’t give the time of day to after he was accused of sleeping with an underage girl, and there’s a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him  Because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor, that all of us had walked away, of the girls that he had slept with. He would brag about how he would crush erectile dysfunction medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night—this is obviously before he got married—and so, when that accusation came out, no one defended him and no one on the media would give him the time of the day.  All of a sudden, he found fame because he opposed the speaker of the House back in November, and he’s always stayed there. And he was never going to leave until he got this last moment of fame by going after a motion to vacate."

Wow.  Kinda says more about the sort of political party that would keep Gaetz than Gaetz himself.

 

 

[okalb 79]

As opposed to the current release by Hakeem Jeffries:
 

In recent days, Democrats have tried to show our colleagues in the Republican majority a way out of the dysfunction and rancor they have allowed to engulf the House. That path to a better place is still there for the taking.

 

Over the past several weeks, when it appeared likely that a motion to vacate the office of speaker was forthcoming, House Democrats repeatedly raised the issue of entering into a bipartisan governing coalition with our Republican counterparts, publicly as well as privately.

 

It was my sincere hope that House Democrats and more traditional Republicans would be able to reach an enlightened arrangement to end the chaos in the House, allowing us to work together to make life better for everyday Americans while protecting our national security.

 

Regrettably, at every turn, House Republicans have categorically rejected making changes to the rules designed to accomplish two objectives: encourage bipartisan governance and undermine the ability of extremists to hold Congress hostage. Indeed, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) publicly declared more than five hours before the motion to vacate was brought up for a vote that he would not work with House Democrats as a bipartisan coalition partner. That declaration mirrored the posture taken by House Republicans in the weeks leading up to the motion-to-vacate vote. It also ended the possibility of changing the House rules to facilitate a bipartisan governance structure.

 

Things further deteriorated from there. Less than two hours after the speakership was vacated upon a motion brought by a member of the GOP conference, House Republicans ordered Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former majority leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) to “vacate” their hideaway offices in the Capitol. The decision to strip Speaker Emerita Pelosi and Leader Hoyer of office space was petty, partisan and petulant.

 

House Republicans have lashed out at historic public servants and tried to shift blame for the failed Republican strategy of appeasement. But what if they pursued a different path and confronted the extremism that has spread unchecked on the Republican side of the aisle? When that step has been taken in good faith, we can proceed together to reform the rules of the House in a manner that permits us to govern in a pragmatic fashion.

 

The details would be subject to negotiation, though the principles are no secret: The House should be restructured to promote governance by consensus and facilitate up-or-down votes on bills that have strong bipartisan support. Under the current procedural landscape, a small handful of extreme members on the Rules Committee or in the House Republican conference can prevent common-sense legislation from ever seeing the light of day. That must change — perhaps in a manner consistent with bipartisan recommendations from the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.

 

In short, the rules of the House should reflect the inescapable reality that Republicans are reliant on Democratic support to do the basic work of governing. A small band of extremists should not be capable of obstructing that cooperation.

 

The need to change course is urgent. Congress is in the midst of a Republican civil war that undermines our ability to make life more affordable for American taxpayers, to keep communities safe and to strengthen democracy. Traditional Republicans need to break with the MAGA extremism that has poisoned the House of Representatives since the violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and its aftermath — when the overwhelming majority of House Republicans continued to promote the “big lie” and voted not to certify the presidential election.

 

House Democrats remain committed to a bipartisan path forward, as we have repeatedly demonstrated throughout this Congress by providing a majority of the votes to prevent a government shutdown this month and avoid a catastrophic default on America’s debt in June.

 

At this point, we simply need Republican partners willing to break with MAGA extremism, reform the highly partisan House rules that were adopted at the beginning of this Congress and join us in finding common ground for the people.

 

Edited October 6, 2023 by okalb

[Faicon9493 114]

“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party. It is merely a conspiracy to seize power.” - Dwight Eisenhower

[SkyDekker 1,141]

1 hour ago, okalb said:

Hakeem Jeffries

Only need 6 GOP votes to make him Speaker.

[SkyDekker 1,141]

1 hour ago, billvon said:

Diamond and/or Silk

I think one of them died of COVID, cause the vaccine is bad.

[wolfriverjoe 1,351]

4 hours ago, SkyDekker said:

I think one of them died of COVID, cause the vaccine is bad.

Diamond, real name Lynette Hardaway, died back in January.

Likely from Covid, but the family never released the cause.

However, even dead, she'd be a better speaker than Gym Jordan.

[billvon 2,427]

The latest chapter in the saga - FOX News sticks their foot in things!  From Melanie Zanona:

Multiple House Republicans tell me they're infuriated by the decision for speaker candidates to participate in a televised debate w/ Fox News Host Bret Baier from the Capitol on Monday, & several of them have already communicated those frustrations to the speaker candidates.  One lawmaker called it “insanity” and said “people are pissed.” Another Republican complained that this will turn their speaker’s race into a “circus.” A third predicted event won't go on as planned because of the pushback it's already getting.

Republicans are already planning for an internal debate on Tuesday and are outraged - OUTRAGED! - that FOX might upstage them.

But I do find it funny that one republican thinks that this might TURN INTO a circus.  Because . . . it's been so rational until now?

[Phil1111 913]

On 10/6/2023 at 9:14 PM, billvon said:

The latest chapter in the saga - FOX News sticks their foot in things!  From Melanie Zanona:

Multiple House Republicans tell me they're infuriated by the decision for speaker candidates to participate in a televised debate w/ Fox News Host Bret Baier from the Capitol on Monday, & several of them have already communicated those frustrations to the speaker candidates.  One lawmaker called it “insanity” and said “people are pissed.” Another Republican complained that this will turn their speaker’s race into a “circus.” A third predicted event won't go on as planned because of the pushback it's already getting.

Republicans are already planning for an internal debate on Tuesday and are outraged - OUTRAGED! - that FOX might upstage them.

But I do find it funny that one republican thinks that this might TURN INTO a circus.  Because . . . it's been so rational until now?

Lipstick on the clowns, lipstick on the pigs feeding in the trough. Its all good for the GOP.

[JoeWeber 2,325]

On 10/6/2023 at 1:55 PM, SkyDekker said:

I think one of them died of COVID, cause the vaccine is bad.

Today I received my seventh Covid shot, all Pfizer including two Bivalent doses. At the same time I received my Flu and Pneumonia jabs. Still, I have no tail or 5G in my ears and, most importantly, tonights Pinot tastes as good as ever. 

[ryoder 1,398]

42 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

Today I received my seventh Covid shot, all Pfizer including two Bivalent doses. At the same time I received my Flu and Pneumonia jabs. Still, I have no tail or 5G in my ears and, most importantly, tonights Pinot tastes as good as ever. 

Haven't you heard? The new Covid shots are 6G!

[billvon 2,427]

1 hour ago, ryoder said:

Haven't you heard? The new Covid shots are 6G!

All the monitoring and tracking for the black helicopters, but at a 4x higher data rate?

[kallend 1,647]

10 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

Today I received my seventh Covid shot, all Pfizer including two Bivalent doses. At the same time I received my Flu and Pneumonia jabs. Still, I have no tail or 5G in my ears and, most importantly, tonights Pinot tastes as good as ever. 

Got my 6th two weeks ago.  My hat covers the horns.

[wolfriverjoe 1,351]

2 minutes ago, kallend said:

Got my 6th two weeks ago.  My hat covers the horns.

 

10 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

Today I received my seventh Covid shot, all Pfizer including two Bivalent doses. At the same time I received my Flu and Pneumonia jabs. Still, I have no tail or 5G in my ears and, most importantly, tonights Pinot tastes as good as ever. 

Wait a minute...

None of you turned into zombies (or government controlled robots) on Wednesday?

 

[billvon 2,427]

And today McCarthy announced that he would accept the speakership if he was asked to take it back, and several republicans vowed they would vote for no one other than McCarthy.  This, of course, will outrage MAGA republicans.

Meanwhile Brian Fitzpatrick and Chip Roy are trying to change the rules so that any new speaker needs 217 confirmed republican votes before any actual vote.  This, of course, is to prevent any speaker from getting bipartisan support before the vote. Dozens of republicans are behind this one - a measure that could take weeks to vote on and implement, and that would guarantee a dysfunctional House for years to come.

Pass the popcorn.

[JerryBaumchen 1,063]

1 hour ago, billvon said:

And today McCarthy announced that he would accept the speakership if he was asked to take it back, and several republicans vowed they would vote for no one other than McCarthy.  This, of course, will outrage MAGA republicans.

Meanwhile Brian Fitzpatrick and Chip Roy are trying to change the rules so that any new speaker needs 217 confirmed republican votes before any actual vote.  This, of course, is to prevent any speaker from getting bipartisan support before the vote. Dozens of republicans are behind this one - a measure that could take weeks to vote on and implement, and that would guarantee a dysfunctional House for years to come.

Pass the popcorn.

Hi Bill,

As I continue to say:  They eat their own.

Jerry Baumchen

[billvon 2,427]

And we must not forget George Santos, the GOP darling who is now facing 23 federal charges, including conspiracy to commit fraud against the United States and aggravated identify theft.  Apparently he would use a website to capture contributor's credit card numbers then go on shopping sprees.

Great role model you have there, republicans.

Although he does have a way to go to get to Trump's count of 91 felony indictments.  No one likes a loser, George.  Gotta get that count up.

 

[ryoder 1,398]

So Dear Leader backed Gym Jordan for Speaker.

But the House GOP just nominated Scalise over Jordan: 113 to 99.

US House Republicans nominate Scalise to replace ousted speaker McCarthy

So now we see if they can elect a speaker without 15 rounds of voting.

[gowlerk 1,923]

2 minutes ago, Slim King said:

MAGA !!!!!  I'll vote for Kennedy.

Perfect. That's what we are all hoping you and yours do.

[jakee 1,257]

21 minutes ago, Slim King said:

Yes .. Many Independents and Democrats will vote for Kennedy. More than for Biden. The Democrat system for candidate selection is corrupt and you know it.

Right, you hate Biden, hate the Democrats and love Trump... but will vote for Kennedy. As long as there are a bunch more 'independents' like you around the left has absolutely nothing to worry about next Fall.

[ryoder 1,398]

3 minutes ago, jakee said:

Right, you hate Biden, hate the Democrats and love Trump... but will vote for Kennedy. As long as there are a bunch more 'independents' like you around the left has absolutely nothing to worry about next Fall.

I don't think Russian nationals can vote in our elections.

[okalb 79]

27 minutes ago, Slim King said:

L@@KS like the GOP chaos is over. 

 

L@@KS like you have no understanding of how this works.

[gowlerk 1,923]

26 minutes ago, okalb said:

L@@KS like you have no understanding of how this works.

Edit.....nevermind 

Edited October 12, 2023 by gowlerk

[okalb 79]

6 minutes ago, Slim King said:

NO CHAOS... proceeding along as planned.

There is no chance that Steve Scalise is elected speaker. There is currently nobody in the GOP that has the votes to be speaker. It is complete chaos, they can't even pick a leader and you think they are qualified to govern the country.

[billvon 2,427]

24 minutes ago, okalb said:

There is no chance that Steve Scalise is elected speaker. There is currently nobody in the GOP that has the votes to be speaker. It is complete chaos, they can't even pick a leader and you think they are qualified to govern the country.

It will be fun to see them try to float Gym Jordan again.

And this is AWESOME.  Remember our old friend George Santos, who the GOP is defending because they have to keep a majority at any cost?  Well, turns out he's not going to vote for ol' Steve either.  See, Steve didn't call him, and George feels left out and unpopular.  He said he'd vote for “ANYONE but Scalise and come hell or high water I won’t change my mind.”

[GeorgiaDon 340]

Surely amongst the Republican members of the House there must be some who are sane and reasonable enough to negotiate support from enough Democrats.  But, that would require prioritizing legislating over partisan power, so of course it will never happen.