I assume it has something to do with aid/funding bills. Big money, military-industrial complex is the voice of “reason” now. /S
Who am I kidding now? It’s probably because this shit show benefits no one and costing all the big guys their paycheck.
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By his own logic, yes! Hakeem Jeffries is the clear front runner, since he has had the most votes in every round since McCarthy’s removal. Why aren’t republicans supporting the front runner?!
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I don’t think he has the brains to be puzzled. He had his lines “The Democrats were 96% of the vote to oust McCarthy” and that’s as far as his brain could go. I congratulate Ms. Keilar for her patience in not shouting at him!
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Excellent letter!
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Thanks! I have no illusions that such isolated correspondence will make much of an impact with someone like Scott, but I truly believe if voters contacted their representatives in great enough numbers, it could make a huge difference in how we’re governed.
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Yeah, I think you’re right… We should all reach out more to our reps and senators and let them know how we feel about things that they are doing up in Washington. They do have staffs for that kind of thing, of course. In theory our house reps are the ones we’re meant to have the most access to, and we should remember that.
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Wrong.
Wrong (the that’s as far as his brain could go bit).
He tries, admittedly very clumsily, to tell a lie. But he knows it’s a lie. He didn’t even come up with this lie himsef, he is in effect following a script. He also knows that repeating whatever bullshit ad nauseam will be eaten up by that part of his constituency who want to vote for a man like him, and that’s the bit that matters.
Not a genius or a great performer, sure. But simply waving one’s hands and stating “oh he’s just a Bear of Very Little Brain” and moving on is a dangerous underestimation. It certainly didn’t prevent him and his buddies from getting into the positions they hold now.
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They do have staffs for that kind of thing, of course. In theory our house reps are the ones we’re meant to have the most access to, and we should remember that.
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Absolutely! I have a longtime friend who started out after college as an aide to a Representative from Indiana. As an aide, his main job was to answer constituent mail (back when it was all snail mail). He claimed that they did pass along voter reactions to the Rep, and that if enough voters wrote in about an issue, it did have an impact on how they voted.
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That’s probably still the case for most of the Reps out there, but probably not for the MTGs, Gaetz, Jordan’s and Boeberts, who probably only listen to their most extreme constituents. 
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AOC did a great job speaking to this.
It’s really a party tradition and is always partisan. Maybe a couple of minority party outcasts will vote for the majority’s speaker nominee, but the whole ritual is general a -celebration- of taking the majority by the majority electing a speaker (and historically striving hard not to appear divided). Another way to look at it, and why journalists shouldn’t even be engaging on this BS: Does the majority party select the minority whip? Nope.
Speaking to it as a consistent tradition, these are some consistent nominees of the past century:
Joseph W. Martin (MA-R): 1939-1957
Sam Rayburn (TX-D): 1940-1961
Robert H Michel (IL-R): 1981-1993
Nancy Pelosi (CA-D): 2003-2021
You get why Rayburn gets the building name. He served that entire period with two exceptions in which the GOP won and Martin served. Other long serving speakers due to consistent majorities (year elected):
John McCormack 1962-69
Tip O’Neill 1977-85
I could see this happening to the dems some day.
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Worse than that: the Democrats fought to not have this one-vote-to-vacate rule in place, even as McCarthy was getting elected, because its results would so obviously be stupid. But they failed, and here we are.
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The party of personal responsibility is having a teenager moment.
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AOC is a shining beacon of competence and sanity.
I’m not sure what you’re getting at here, though:
What do you mean by “this” in that sentence?
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With Trump still dangerous and the rise of Trump-inspired fascism, perhaps even corporate media has finally realized that they must take a risk and get “skin in the game”. Also, with advertisers fairly leaning away from right-wing bs-generators, corporate media may feel emboldened to firmly and clearly push back.
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They’ve never been the party of “personal responsibility”, at least in the modern era… They’ve always been the party of cruelty, at least for my whole life… The party of Eisenhower is long gone.
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If you’re talking about a split within the Dems resulting in this kind of Speaker debacle, it’s still much less likely unless “someday” is decades in the future. Even with a split between 3rd Way establishment and progressives, the party is still focused on actually governing in a way that the Republicans haven’t been for decades. Also, the ideological gulf and rancor between Ocasio-Cortez and Biden are a lot smaller than those between Mitt Romney and EmptyG.
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I took it to mean in the Total Recall future.
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In 2015 very few people were projecting Trump or particularly tuned in to a future MAGA cult, how appealing his racist campaign announcement was etc. It happened fast, and the current split has to do with other politicians who know that doing this appeals to voters. Shut down the whole government and all gov’t services! Hell yeah!!!
People on the left also feel some distrust in their govt, see the party as totally sold out etc etc and there may be a gullible mass of voters in there who would fall for a leftist demagogue who comes along with the “right” message.
The GOP has been stepped in racism since it adapted the Southern Strategy in 1968. The Republicans have been dedicated to “proving” that government does not work since Reagan in 1980. GOP Representatives has not operated in good faith within the duopoly system since Gingrich in 1992. Prince Bush’s courtiers derided the “reality-based community” 20 years ago. MAGA and this debacle are the logical outcomes of all those decisions, throwing in 1930s vintage “America First” isolationism and appeasement as well.
Nothing about it “happened fast”. It’s more akin to Hemingway’s description of how his character Mike Campbell went bankrupt: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
Those people aren’t really running as or voting for Dems of any stripe. There’s a big difference between Ocasio-Cortez and your typical brocialist or member of the “Dirtbag Left”. Bernie Sanders caucused with the Dems despite being an independent socialist because he’s a grown-up who priorities governance over power games or third-party fantasies.
A true leftist contender, demagogue or not, is a non-starter in the U.S. system. The only way a latter day Eugene Debs might get power is through an actual revolution, not through regular and orderly processes of government like choosing a Speaker of the House.
We are currently dealing with fascist demagogues getting elected within the system. Bothsidesism based on highly improbable theoretical scenarios only serves as a useless distraction.
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