House Republicans worry about speaker gridlock after closed-door meeting
stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to 
axios.com
Multiple members emerged from the House GOP's speaker forum on Tuesday saying they don't see either candidate being any closer to having the votes needed to secure the gavel on the floor.
Driving the news: "No one is close to 217," Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said after Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La) and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) pitched members on why they believe they should be the next speaker.
Cry more. You did this to yourselves, dipshits. I have precisely zero sympathy. I’m confident an overwhelming majority of the rest of the country feels exactly the same way.
Zero sympathy, sure.
But after the latest CR, and seeing this dumpster fire, I'm eyeing late November uneasily, as are, I'm sure, millions of federal employees.
Honestly, if the GOP continues to shit the bed so consistently and thoroughly, I see a nonzero chance that a handful of non-psycho GOP reps might just throw in with Hakeem Jeffries and give the house leadership to the Democrats. But that’s contingent on, like, 5 or so Republicans actually putting the country over their party, which is a coin toss at best.
Based on the evidence so far, until they prove otherwise the coin has the same face printed on all sides including the edge.
Honestly when was the last time they put country before party?
At some point before the USSR imploded, if I had to guess
Lol is this supposed to be a surprise? They had to vote 15 different times to get their "best" choice just a few months ago. Were they expecting this was somehow going to be easier?
What truly blows my mind is that our government was designed with compromise in mind, but Republicans drank the New Gingrich Koolaid so hard that the idea of compromise has become political suicide for them. I'm hoping that this situation finally makes them realize that a 9 seat majority isn't exactly a mandate from God, and that they need to work across political lines to govern.
I'm too much of a realist to expect that to happen though. I don't believe the modern GOP has any interest in governing.
Republicans don't want to govern though. They're perfectly fine with the federal government being absolutely crippled; the only reason they're panicking right now is because they are squarely taking the blame for it and can't spin it as the Democrats' fault.
They absolutely will spin it as the Democrats fault and their voters will eat every bit of it up.
Republican politicians: [strangle infants with their bare hands while chanting hymns to Satan and 'Death to America']
Conservatives: "Well, neither side is perfect, there's a lot of bad going on, some we know about, some we don't. Really I don't support either side when you get down to it." [immediately votes a straight Republican ticket]
"Democrats have done worse." -Republican voters without being able to name a single instance
I'm not doing your research, look it up yourself!
Almost literally a response I got earlier. 🤣
It's the independents (whoever they are) that swing elections in places. And those places fill seats.
We need all swing voters to see the shitshow that is the GOP. It's already obvious, but I've encountered way to many"enlightened/disengaged" voters and I'm ready for them to see that can't afford that shit now.
Oh, I didn't say they weren't trying. But even a dim bulb can figure out that if it takes a majority of the House to elect and keep a Speaker, and the House has a Republican majority, then the reason there isn't a Speaker is because the majority party can't keep their shit together.
I think you're overestimating the majority of the American electorate. A solid chunk of low information voters think Biden is in charge of everything and anything bad that happens is solely his fault.
FTFY
Kevin McCarthy explicitly said that they know the government was designed with compromise, but they don't want to, because they're in the majority and therefore should be able to do whatever they want.
I don't disagree, but want to add that the beauty of this clusterfuck is that they're so damn selfish that they even lack the ability to get anything done even with the majority.
Like...you literally have the votes for whatever you wanna do, all you have to do is agree amongst yourselves, and they can't even manage that. There's no "we". Even though "they" have the majority, they really don't, since a majority doesn't mean anything if you can't organize your party.
Of course all of this completely ignores the other 200 plus members of the House, but it's just plain beyond the realm of possibility to even imagine a world where the GOP centrists, sick of the stupidity from the MAGA wing, lean over the aisle and go, "Okay we're sick of trying to appease them. What would it take to get a dozen of you guys to sign off on a piece of legislation?"
And the only reason that's unthinkable is because the entire party is just as pigheaded as Gaetz, they're just less extreme in their positions and less loudmouthed about it.
Damn them for changing the formula. BRING BACK OLD GINGRICH KOOLAID
It has hotdogs floating in it.
Apparently my phone's autocorrect refuses to acknowledge that a loving mother would ever name their child Newt.
Back in the day, Ronald Reagan talked about 'The Big Tent' and how GOPs shouldn't slash each other.
Of course, Reagan himself happily backstabbed Gerald Ford by demanding Ford keep the Panama Canal...
Watch them blame Democrats.
"Look, Hakeem Jeffries isn't going to become speaker so the Democrats should just end this whole mess they created and throw their support for [someone] so we can get back to business."
Yes, I've heard people making this argument already.
And my answer back would be: "Jeffries is a perfectly good, perfectly viable option. I invite any Republican who is sick of the constant posturing between worse and worst candidates for Speakership to vote for him." And if I were Jeffries, I'd say "We'll keep the committees the way they are, we'll respect the Majority's right to set policy, but the Hastert rule is dead with me and if we can't get a passing vote on a Republican idea, I will bring Democrat ideas up. Take it or leave it, but the clock is ticking."
I hate it when I'm right.
At this point, you just have to say 'what would happen next if this was a Mel Brooks movie?'
Coming in 2024: "The Congress" directed by Mel Brooks.
I worry even his satiracal genius would fall short of actual reality.
Not a big shock. They've been blaming them since the this term started for the GOP's inhiblity to pick someone
damn i can't believe the thing they did without thinking of the consequences created consequences for them
Dems could easily determine the next speaker. They only need 5 GOP members to make a deal to elect their guy. Or if that doesn't work someone like Cheney. Or Scalise as a last resort. Definitely they need to stop Gym Jordan from getting it. He is a pedo neofascist.
Scalise compared himself to David duke once, I'm thinking he might not be a good choice either.
You're asking Democrats to choose between a GOP Pedo and a GOP racist. Why not just ask them if they'd rather be shot or stabbed?
just flip that around. Any five GOP members could pick the next speaker if they were willing to make a deal with the Dems.
The GOP is a crab bucket and I can't wait until they gorge themselves to death on each other.
Literally the job of a Congressperson is listening to other points of view and coming up with common ground to find workable solutions to complex problems.
On paper. The reality for the last 20 years is that it's for handing out tax breaks, bailouts and deregulation to the rich -- a job they were groomed for since their earliest days at their very expensive schools.
Now the job is apparently becoming nothing more than figuring out ways to abuse and exploit the rules in order to hold the entire body of government hostage until you get your way.
Look at the actual history and not the 'founding fathers' myth. Before WW2 created the Military-Industrial Complex we all know and love, people really thought that different ways of making money were mutually exclusive. The fight over minting silver backed money was a huge issue [Cross of Gold ring any bells]
end of rant
Well now, I'm just so surprised!
It's probably a futile question, but are there any republican representatives that could switch to the democrats?
I mean, some of them are probably pretty close to the most right leaning dems.
Not a chance unless they are already planning on retiring. Any Republican siding with the Dems will be primaried by some loon candidate in the next election.
Wasn't there a handful of R's serving in Biden-winning districts? Rather than worrying about getting primaried, they're probably clinging to the delusion of partisan cohesion even as they look the corpse of that very concept in its cold, dead eyes.
About 20 republicans house members on in Biden districts. So they are more worried about winning the general election than primaries. Which means there is plenty of opportunities to make deals.
They've reached that Wiley Coyote stage where he's 20 feet off the cliff and realizing he shouldn't be there.