Megapost: U.S. Speaker of the House Saga

YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.worldbanned from sitebanned from site to politics @lemmy.world – 307 points –

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Fucking hilarious that the Republicans brought up the downgraded credit rating that they caused and pin it on Diamond Joe lmao.

Fucking scum bags.

They are trying hard to pin blame on all this "chaos" on Democrats. Nobody is buying it.

I bet the same people that have been buying this bullshit for the last 50 years are buying it now.

That crowd keeps getting a little smaller every day though

I want to believe that's true but I'm not sure it is.

You're right, it's not true. People need to get out of their bubble and listen to public radio in the states. Even the supposed non-biased ones love peddling the BOTH SIDES narrative bs. This is why races are almost always 50/50

Well, they're supposed to just roll over and let them do what they want! How dare they ask for facts, reason, and properly ran debates! The temerity of it all!

Something like 40% of the electorate is completely bought into this.

It's more than that. Gallup just released pool results that make it look like Republicans could win big the next election.

The USA as a group is astoundingly stupid.

Polls also said the 2022 election was supposed to be a huge red wave, and instead dems kept the senate, and republicans only got a tiny majority in the house, one so small that they just had the first speaker ever voted out of the position

I wish that were the case. Talk to me after the next election...

The one thing Republican Kevin McCarthy dared to do that was over-the-line was to work with Democrats to avert shutdown for the sake of the country. But that was too much for the right-wing extremists, who caused this in the first place...

216 yes, 210 no

✅ Resolution is adopted. Speaker position is vacated.

Theodore Medad Pomeroy was elected as speaker on the last day of the 40th Congress on March 3, 1869. It was a gesture of respect and honor ahead of his retirement. He served one day as speaker, basically an honorary role, speaker for the day and then congres adjourned for the year. He was the shortest serving house speaker in US history. The second shortest serving house speaker is Kevin McCarthy.

May be all aspire to one day be named something as dignified as Theodore Medad Pomeroy.

Thnx for the trivia! Til of the day

Glad you enjoyed it! I just love the contrast. The shortest speaker was respected and honored and the house votes to put him in for one day like Rudy. It's a very sweet gesture. The second shortest speaker got knifed like Caesar by the crazies he helped to elect.

Cheers for spreading they knowledge, sipped it up with great enjoyment

Wow what a change from the early days of respect and retiring to now where the oldest senator just died at "Fuck she was how old?!" and the current speaker got outed for being a shit eater and not being cruel enough by a handful of rich twats that don't understand debate or decorum... what a mess the late empire is.

LoL what a wild read. But yeah they really beat the shit out of each other occasionally back then but that still seems an outlier and like there was a whole civil war I wouldn't exactly say showed the best respect for other humans

It's hilarious to hear Republican after Republican attack the Democrats over this ridiculousness, when they desperately need Democrats to vote not to vacate. They're not doing their own arguments any favors.

"I stole your car and crashed it into a fireworks factory while high on bath salts but it's your fault you didn't stop me!"

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On this day, McCarthy remembered -- this is exactly what everyone said was going to happen and why no one understood why he wanted the position so badly.

Yup. Literally no one is shocked by this. Not even Kevin McCarthy.

The only thing I find baffling is that he didn't negotiate with the democrats over the funding bill sooner. He knew he wouldn't last regardless and yet he still put party above principle. I don't understand someone getting stabbed in the back and then working with the stabber to stab others.

He could have just stuck to the deal he already agreed to in May. The extreme right would still hate him but Democrats would have at least one reason to help him out. Now the crazy pants caucus hates him for caving and the Democrats know he cannot be trusted. He did this to himself.

He's a power grabber. He was convinced that he'd find SOME way of staying in power. It was only at the very edge of the precipice that he made a deal with the Democrats. At that point, the government certainly shutting down would have hurt his power more than the possibility that Gaetz would vacate the chair.

The 11th commandment is falling apart and it is glorious watching the GOP eat their own.

Republican voters. The Republican party has degraded to a point where their biggest selling point is “pwning the libz”.

If McCarthy survived this with Democratic help, he’d be labeled a Democrat stooge (i.e. someone who believes in cooperating with the libz, instead of pwning them).

Every comprise position he proposes after that would face internal Republican voter critique along the lines of: “is this the best deal he could get, or is he doing this to help the democrats?”

For years now, republicans have been selling the idea that working with democrats is bad or at best a necessary evil. Publicly asking for democratic cooperation goes against years of propoganda.

That's the funny part they wouldn't give it to the Dems out of spite but they can't lead or build a caucus of a majority.

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Hunter Biden! I got a BINGO!

[Oversight?!? We haven't even subpoenaed a private citizen with literally nothing to do with the government!]

In a nutshell, here’s what happened. In January, McCarthy made an agreement with hardline conservatives, some of whose terms have never been made public, to ultimately secure their support as Speaker. In May, McCarthy made a (public) agreement with Democrats to set the federal budget at a certain level in order to avert a default on the national debt. In September, though, McCarthy (under pressure from hardliners) attempted to secure further funding cuts during negotiations over a potential government shutdown—then ultimately conceded to Democrats and helped pass a funding bill that largely did not include any of the cuts that the hardliners sought (which were cuts that McCarthy had originally, in May, told Democrats he wouldn’t seek).

McCarthy has left both his party’s furthest-right members and the entire Democratic caucus with the belief that he cannot be trusted, which is why Democrats are expected to join Monday afternoon with hyper-aggressive Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and at least five other conservatives in supporting a “motion to vacate the chair” in the House, i.e end McCarthy’s speakership. (Republicans currently hold 221 House seats to Democrats’ 212.)

If that happens—and it’s a fluid situation—there’s no telling what will happen next. No other Republicans have actually said they want to be Speaker, which would put us roughly back where we were in January: With McCarthy holding enough support among Republicans that no one else is a plausible candidate to become Speaker, but not enough support to win a majority of the entire House, which is what’s required, and actually assume the position. (And yes, the House needs a Speaker.)

If that happens—and it’s a fluid situation—there’s no telling what will happen next.

That's not strictly true. If there is no Speaker, then all the House can do is vote for one. So we know exactly what happens next. What we don't know is who will end up with the job, or how long it will take to pick that person. It could be over on the first vote, or it could take days (even weeks).

That sounds like it's gonna be an shitty time

Shitty time for the federal employees who are relying on these idiots to get their shit together and fund the govt another year, for sure.

If you're in a position to not be directly affected by that, though, it's time for popcorn 🍿

If that happens—and it’s a fluid situation—there’s no telling what will happen next. No other Republicans have actually said they want to be Speaker, which would put us roughly back where we were in January

Let's hope it's not Marjorie Taylor Greene...

The Democrats have announced that they will vote against McCarthy.

We have like 40 days to figure out a new speaker and then find the govt. it was hard enough to pick one the first time. This isn’t going to end well

It's not that hard. Dems just need to pick a republican who isn't a complete piece of shit......oh wait. It is going to be hard.

Maybe the progressive bloc of the Dems should pull a freedom caucus and hold the party hostage until we get someone decent as speaker. I know that won't work for a million and one reasons but a man can dream

I don't have time to go looking and I don't really know anyone else who does.

... So who the hell is going to find it? Hell, who lost it in the first place? Make them find it, I'm busy over here.

... ; )

Update: House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair

Do you have like a CSPAN video link or something live?

so basically they now have 45 days to pass a CR or the Republicans will shut down the government again and 20 of those days will be spent picking a new speaker...

20 days to pick a new speaker

24 days to argue about the bill within their own party

1 day for the speaker to hastily save the party from owning another shutdown

7 days for that speaker to be kicked out

You forgot the next step: Repeat endlessly while claiming that Republicans govern better than Democrats.

Don't forget also claiming they are better at the economy as well.

Republicans are better at the economy.

Oh, wait. I forgot a word.

Republicans are better at TANKING the economy.

There, much more accurate.

I feel like there's a "On the first day of Christmas legislation, the GOP gave to me..." carol, ripe for the singing, here!

McCarthy gets ousted by his own party, somehow manages to blame Democrats. Speaking to the press just now:

“I think today was a political decision by the Democrats. And I think I think the things they have done in the past hurt the institution,” he said.

What a piece of shit, good riddance. The 45 daystop gap funding bill he put on the floor for a vote an hour after it was introduced, leaving Dems no time to read 77 page bill to see if it had poison pills they couldn't vote for. Classy guy. Just today it was reported he was refusing to postpone votes on Thursday so membera could attend Dianne Feinstein's funeral.

The new guy doesn't seem to be any better:

As one of his first acts as the acting speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry ordered former Speaker Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday, according to an email sent to her office viewed by POLITICO.

“Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed,” wrote a top aide on the Republican-controlled House Administration Committee. The room was being reassigned by the acting speaker “for speaker office use,” the email said.

Only a select few House lawmakers get hideaway offices in the Capitol, compared to their commonplace presence in the Senate.

The former speaker blasted the eviction in a statement as “a sharp departure from tradition,” adding that she had given former Speaker Dennis Hastert “a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished” during her tenure.

Pelosi didn't even vote today, she was in SF with Fienstein. But don't let that get in the way of partisan bullshit. And she said she won't be able to pack up by Wednesday for the same reason. Fucking gouls.

A petty person abusing temporary authority.

Oh McCarthy must have an intense fury for Republicans right now, he just doesn't want to add fuel to the fire.

I mean it's a giant wildfire so it doesn't really matter but it's still funny to see him kneeling to them.

Never mind that the only role he has as Speaker pro tempore is facilitating the election of a new Speaker. He doesn't have the power to rule on any other House business that isn't very narrowly and very specifically tied to that one, single purpose.

But then again, we're talking about a Republican here, so power grabbing moves are par for the course.

Holy fucking gaslighting, Batman!

These fuckers live in an alternate universe.

Will the democrats get a chance to speak? If so, all they have to do is say, "This is what you get when you vote for republicans"

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"If you throw a speaker out that has 99 percent of their conference, that kept government open and paid the troops, I think we're in a really bad place," McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday morning.

Guess he's not talking about himself because he's got only 96.33%(210/218) of his conference...

He didn't even have that for the CR vote, didn't like 90 Republicans vote no on it?

I imagine him sickcrying right now as he packs his shit to move down into the basement next to the waterheater and boiler for the House.

I never WANTED TO BE SPEAKER ANYWAY!

heavy sobs as he wipes his nose with his sleave

Stoopid gavel is TOO FUCKING SMALL ANYWAY!

Kevin then angerly throws a scrapbook of his first week in office across the room and throws himself onto a couch. He hiccup sobs into a pillow as The Cranberries ode to my family plays in the background

Remember when he went ahead and moved into that office before being elected speaker? Somebody get me some mint milanos.

Nah has confused as to why these Republicans aren't falling in line like they're supposed to. He's speaker after all. They did for a pedo like Denny hastert and Eric cantor and that wank stain Paul Ryan.

It's funny that they're starting to believe their own rhetoric instead of just making back room deals like usual.

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I don't doubt that putin's interest is in creating disruption in the US, but I think the much louder call is coming from inside the house. American corporations and the wealthy benefit greatly from a congress that is too crisis-ridden to regulate them.

House rejects attempt to spare Kevin McCarthy a vote on removal.

The Republican-led House on Tuesday voted down a motion to table a resolution that would remove the California Republican from the speakership. As a result, the chamber will move forward with a vote on whether McCarthy should lose his position. His removal is being sought by hard-right members of his party and Democrats have signaled they won’t save him.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/03/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-vote-2/

Let's watch this happen again.

The Republicans don't want to govern, they want to prove it's all a circus, andthe two parties in government appear to be elephants and clowns.

Yelling "somebody pull the fire alarm" in the middle of the vote. Going well I see.

Yeah that was a great joke from a guy whose party was in the process of going to historic levels of effort to prove they are incapable of governing.

I think they wish to have the same excitement and goofiness of the British Parliament, but lack the awareness of when to be funny and when to shut the fuck up.

It got a laugh out of me and I hate this version of the republican party.

"The Speaker of the House is chosen by the Majority Party. In this Congress, it is the responsibility of House Republicans to choose a nominee & elect the Speaker on the Floor. At this time there is no justification for a departure from this tradition. The House will be in order" - Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Reports coming in that McCarthy allies are trying to get Dem support.

No dice so far...

He's not getting dem support unless he makes concessions. At which point he will lose rep support. He's boned if he can't whip his caucus into agreement.

And he apparently went back on previous promises made with dems, so they're probably telling those guys trying to get support to go fuck themselves right about now

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This guy is loud and incoherent.

Sorry, Kev. You pinned your political fortunes on blustering ignoramuses.

McCarthy’s term as Speaker has been as embarrassing as it was short-lived. His insistence on caving to the 20 or so votes of the far right over reasonable compromises with the democrats’ hundreds of votes was certainly a choice. But it was a bad one and it was his ruin. Last minute moves to diffuse your own bomb don’t inspire loyalty.

Now who? Who wants it that isn’t a nightmare or a fuckup? Preserved head of Nixon?

Kevin McCarthy has officially been removed from the speakership.

Motion passes for the vote. Let the games begin!

Now that you mention it, I am down for a hunger games scenario between Gaetz, McCarthy and whoever else wants to play. Hold it on the National Mall.

10 Nays to NOT VOTE on a motion to vacate so far. McCarthy is cooked if the votes remain when the actual voting starts.

Are they going to nominate Trump as speaker now?

That's for if he can't get elected at this point. That play was for 2020 if they could make a double impeachment stick. But they may try it again if he loses (somehow) to another GOP candidate.

Sounds like we may have 6 votes (Gaetz and crew) at least to vacate from Rs. Including potential others who are unknowns.
Assuming all the Ds also vote then that would be enough to vacate.

Then what? Who knows~

We get to repeat the spectacle of the House trying to elect a Speaker. Democrats will vote in unison, while Republicans will flail wildly before finding some kind of compromise candidate.

McCarthy was the compromise candidate though...

Yeah... I'm not really sure what the hell they're going to do. It would be hilarious if some moderate Republicans basically went "fuck this noise" and voted for Jeffreys.

Any opportunity to repeat their absurd talking points... oh no, immigrants/great replacement! Oh no, we can't starve the government and make it ineffectual because debt and riders on the debt bills! Oh no, McCarthy compromised and compromise with Democrats is treachery!

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced she is in California and will not be in the House for the expected vote to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R

Kevin McCarthy is a tireless warrior! No one has tongued the seam on Trumps balls as much or as long as he!

What happens if he is vacated as the speaker?

They keep voting till there's another speaker. EVEN IF IT TAKES DAYS OR WEEKS OR LONGER!

Backdoor government shutdown. Don't elect a Speaker for 45 days and fail to pass another CR.

They can't pass a Continuing Resolution. Until they have a Speaker, the only business they can conduct is electing a new Speaker

I think the record is two months back in the 1850's

Bye, Kevin! Don't let the gavel smack you in the forehead on your way out!

Dems slow walking votes to get more people in as a couple are absent. Pelosi on her way from the airport.

Edit: Looks like Pelosi may stay in San Francisco to attend funeral services for the next couple days. So she maybe a no show.

Wow, good job admins on removing the most active post and discussion on the matter just to push people here. Fuck you bring our conversation back.

We actually had a discussion on it, while I was against a megathread for the Diane Feinstein and Fulton County plea deal, this issue is likely to go on for DAYS given what happened last time (5 days, 15 votes). It makes sense to consolidate it down to a single Megapost.

That being said, we should have caught it quicker before any single post gained traction.

We do have future plans for sort of "Pre-emptive Megaposts" when there are scheduled events that we know the timing of. Expect to see those on primary elections, trial dates, that sort of thing.

Why not just lock the other before making this?

Every mod does things their own way, I probably would have done that and stickied a post saying "please direct all future comments to the megapost", but in general, I think the megathread was the right call.

Within 24 hours, that other post will drop off the page and I guarantee the speaker drama will roll on and on. I don't see it ending in 5 days like last time.

A fair set of logic.

Locking but retaining the other would have quelled some of these somewhat incensed folks.

That being said, we should have caught it quicker before any single post gained traction.

And not deleted those that already had and just pushed future posts to the megathread instead of erasing people's legitimate speech.

Yeah that was my thread. Kinda bummed that it got nuked completely. I think it had 400 or 500 upvotes at the time and hundreds of comments.

The really strange thing is that it doesn't even show on my profile anymore. It's just gone.

Hopefully in the future threads will be locked but not deleted when there's a megathread.

Does Andy Biggs have Trumps cock in his mouth? He's mumbling so fucking much.

Are we sure Gaetz isn't bought off by Dark Brandon? He's really laying into McCarthy and others.

That guy announcing recess just slammed the gavel like he wanted to destroy it lol

Eight Republicans against McCarthy after the first reading.

Official notice is coming soon -- MCCARTHY has unofficially been removed from the speakership

Domestic terrorists have taken over the US government, destabilizing our country. Downgrading our credit rating seems deserved at this point.

Non American here, what's the significance of this?

The Speaker of the House is basically in charge of proceedings in the House of Representatives (the "lower" house of the legislature). No business can get done in the House until one is elected by the representatives. This is the first time in history that a sitting Speaker has been removed from the position in the middle of the term. This is a particularly awkward time since the government will run out of funding in 45 days if Congress does not pass a budget.

This is a result of a growing split between the ultra-far-right and the slightly-less-far-right factions within the Republican party.

Speakers don't get removed, ever. He is the first to be voted out in the history of the country.

Also the House now cannot do anything except vote on a new speaker

Is McCarthy out yet!? Huh huh?! The suspense is killing me.

This motion to table the resolution to oust McCarthy is going to fail.

10 GOP nos so far -- and the vote isn't yet closed

11 House Republicans voted against blocking the motion to vacate. The House now moves to a vote to oust Kevin McCarthy.

Blowviating now underway

I'm watching it on YouTube on the Wall St Journal channel. (For me C-SPAN required a log in from a television provider). ETA: I like the way she says "yay."

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This is what happens when you go against the far right

Seems like Dems propping him up so he doesn’t need the alt-right would have better than giving the alt-right more control of the party.

Do we think Gaetz gets speaker next?

Seems like Dems propping him up so he doesn’t need the alt-right would have better than giving the alt-right more control of the party.

McCarthy is the far right. Just because there's another faction of the far right that's turned against him doesn't change that, and it certainly doesn't make him worth allying with. The Democrats tried a policy of spinless complacency for thirty years. It didn't work. It's not going to start working now.

McCarthy already reneged on deals he made with dems for their vote. Why the hell would they try make more deals with him? Especially when he explicitly said, before the vote, that he would not negotiate with Dems?

Lmao the McCarthy supporters were pretty vocal the first time around about not being willing to support any Freedom Caucus candidate, as they seem to have finally, miraculously, found a level of bullshit they dare not cross. Plus the amount of them that want to completely oust Gaetz for being "unbearable" - yeah Imma vote "probably not"

Here's the thing, the far right arm of their party is anathema. They won't give any of them the speakership.

There might be a notion of needing them more

Or there’s more never ending speaker votes