are they even allowed to is the next question, i guess
( eta: it looks like his powers are constrained only by house rules. so whatever percentage is necessary to change the rules is all that’s necessary. maybe dems will join in, if there are concessions
via:
Called it. 
I’d like to give myself credit of course, but really it seemed like the only way forward for the GOP.
Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will not seek an additional speaker vote Thursday, and he will back a plan to give Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the temporary speaker, additional powers, according to multiple people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the situation.
I’m sure they could put it to a vote and McHenry will pass. He seems safe enough for the rest of the GOP.
I read this morning that the Jordan opponents were holding themselves back strategically.
So that every time there was a vote, even more people would be voting against him.
Love it. So. Much.
Maybe, but it’s hard to know if there’s much of an organized strategy here. In the last vote 6 Republicans had changed their votes from round 1. Two that had previously voted against Jordan switched to Jordan, and four that had previously voted for him switched to vote against him.
CSPAN now takes you inside the gQp controlled House chamber…
Why do they think this is any more possible?
One of the Washington Post articles on this includes this teaser:
If House Republicans continue to struggle to elect a speaker, they have two options many consider less palatable:
No. 1: Work with Democrats to elect a consensus candidate.
No. 2: Give the placeholder speaker the authority to act as if he were speaker.
But, aren’t those effectively the same thing?
Doing either requires a majority of votes. There’s enough hard line GOP that will vote against this that the only solution is to get Democrats votes too. Any plan that gets bipartisan votes is going to require concessions to the Democrats.
Do they thinks those concessions and consensus items are going to somehow be smaller and more palatable to more GOP representatives for solution 2 vs 1? I suppose they’re betting that they can get a few Dem votes to switch with really weak and useless concessions. That’s not a bet I would take. Of course, I know how to count too.
Basically because, as remote as this possibility might be, it’s still better odds than Jordan becoming speaker because that’s zero. : )
Jordan is so hated by his own colleagues that it seems at least 20 of them would rather no speaker than him as speaker. So other options that are %.01, or %.0001, or %.00000000001 - these are all at least chances.
From this current offramp I see three further possible forks:
But if more than 5 of the GOP Congress extremists object to this, then the remaining comparatively sane GOP Congress has these 2 options:
offer a good enough deal to Democrats that they can get enough Democrats to back a limited-power McHenry - with safeguards the Democrats can rely on. I can see Democrats agreeing to this if, for example, the formal vote to expand the pro tem speaker’s powers includes a 15-day limit with a re-vote at the end. So if McHenry and the GOP don’t deliver on the deal made, the deal is revoked. Basically the GOP Congress is on a 15-day leash.
failing that, the GOP Congress continues to have no power to pass bills the donor class want, and continues to take it on the chin until their Wall Street backers scream.
MTG, Gaetz, Ogles, Banks(?), Perry, Mast(?)
That’s either 4 or 6. More than 5 is probably a given. Which means it requires Dem votes to work.
Every deal item needs to gain more Democrats than the Republicans it loses. If they come up with an idea that can attract 10 Democrats but it loses 10 (or more) Republicans, it doesn’t solve anything.
They’re going to need a deal that will attract 50%+ of Democrats and 50%+ of Republicans.
This will probably go right up to the deadline when the government shuts down. If we’re lucky. If we’re unlucky, it’ll shut down. Thanksgiving is going to be interesting with the government closed.
The loudest that appear to be in charge of the GOP caucus are not going to get this done.
Agree. Fortunately there is quite a bit more unity among the Democrats than the GOP at this point. So I think a deal that is good and safeguarded enough for Jeffries to approve, has a very good chance of winning enough Democrat votes to offset GOP losses.
Of course, in this uncharted territory we will continue to see how it all goes…
…from latest reports, the possible McHenry deal is out of favor. Or at least, less in favor than Jordan taking another try.
So it looks like we’re going to get to see Jordan lose again. Maybe at least another couple times. : )
And the GOP is now one intersection back, at the previous fork in the road with these 3 paths:
…I really don’t see any options that aren’t one of these.
I am also, to be honest, nearly overdosing on schadenfreude. I would in theory like to be more enlightened. But seeing an absolute ass like Jordan facing these difficulties, and with him the entire enabling GOP, is just…(Chef’s kiss.)
The only powers an interim speaker has is to call session for a vote on the non-interim speaker. So they can’t have a session to vote on house rules - that’s not within the interim speaker’s powers. So they can’t change house rules to expand his powers.
If they want to expand his powers, they would need to elect him speaker.
This is the root problem. They could barely all stand McCarthy. They could try to nominate McHenry for speaker. Even then, I think the far right is more than 6 votes and they’re not going to vote for anyone who isn’t far right. They’re taking this option off the table if they don’t get their way. It’s at least consistent with the idea they “govern” through tantrum with no policy beyond burn it all down.
They might be able to get this with McHenry, might. But, if there’s no actual coalition building, they’re not going to get this until we are into November. While I expect Democrats to try and prevent a government shutdown, I don’t expect them to roll over. They’ve said they will not vote for anyone that didn’t vote to certify the 2020 election.
That gives this one some sub options:
I think this is the one that will continue for the rest of October at least.
There’s one more. The GOP through threats of violence scares off enough of it’s own members that they don’t show up to vote at all. Thereby changing the majority required. This would take some screw up too, since McHenry could just not call them into session to avoid a vote in this scenario. This one feels just as likely, as this seems to be the negotiating tactic to get Jordan votes.
They would still need to get more votes than Jeffries though.
omg. that makes perfect sense.
is anyone taking about that do you know? ( any links at all? )
Where’s Chris Christie when you need him?! Only 10 repubs need to get stuck in a closed bridge traffic jam somewhere, or eat some bad fish, and Hakeem’s your man.
It sure would be something if the way the GOP finds out of this box they put themselves in, is completely passive aggressive. They have 5 of their members “go out for lunch” in the same Uber and it “gets in an accident” that makes them “too late to vote in time, darn it.”
You know, some kind of unexplained accident that doesn’t get reported in time and turns off all their cellphones. Whoops, Speaker Jeffries!
And then the GOP is off the hook. They get to complain and shriek and stomp their feet without having to actually take on governance. Which is probably what most of them want.
…Realistically, I don’t think this GOP Congress is anywhere near smart or unified enough to pull off something like that. And their Wall Street backers have paid for them to be in power, so they would not be happy with the GOP just giving power away. But it amuses me to think of it.
It would be a solution, and McHenry would have a better chance with moderates and the relatively non-insane in the GOP Congress.
That said, I don’t know if he has markedly better chances than McCarthy to get elected Speaker. I would expect Gaetz, MTG and at least another 3 others of the Freedom Fries caucus to torpedo his candidacy by calling him “McCarthy lite”.
The bind the GOP is in right now, is anyone with appeal to the non-insane means he’s not insane enough for their extremists. : ) In fact, no one might be extreme enough. If Gaetz were cloned, he might not even vote for himself. The extremists have such a personal vested interest in loudly gumming things up. More so than even having a functioning government. Their particular base of voters apparently think the chaos is better.
And from the other direction, anyone extreme enough to get their vote is likely to lose even more moderates.
All of which means at this particular time the GOP Congress can basically either work with Democrats or keep losing. Until that group of their extremists shrinks below the number 5.
Separately, I have heard rumored that McHenry doesn’t want the job. Which does look pretty thankless at this point.
