According to the Washington Post, the House Republicans are close to reaching a deal. It sounds like McCarthy is going to let the insurrectionists run with scissors for the next two years:
In a major allowance to the hard-right Republicans, McCarthy offered to lower from five to one the number of members required to sponsor a resolution to force a vote on ousting the speaker — a change that the California Republican had previously said he would not accept.
McCarthy also expressed a willingness to place more members of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus on the Rules Committee, which debates legislation before it is moved to the floor. And he relented on allowing floor votes to institute term limits on members and to enact specific border policy legislation.
The proposed rule changes represented a stunning reversal that, if adopted, would weaken the position of speaker and ensure a tenuous hold on the job.
The “moderate” Republicans are worried about that one. What if one of the insurrectionists calls to revoke the Speakership from McCarthy right in the middle of one of Jim Jordan’s vitally important rant fueled angertainment hearings on Hunter Biden’s laptop? The Republican coalition would be completely impotent, unable to deliver on impeaching a person who never had an elected governmental position. What about that, huh??
The insurrectionists say they would never do such a thing. You can trust them.
{{rolling eyes}}
I’m hearing Renee Zellwegger singing Roxie from Chicago.
“You know, all my life I wanted to have my own act. But no. No, no, no. Always no. They always turned me down. A whole big world full of No.”
And then Kevin, er, Amos came along.
Roxie commits a seedy murder, finds she has a talent for attracting the tabloid press, and suddenly, it’s a whole world full of YES!
“The American people love me and I love them. And they love me for loving them and I love them for loving me and we loooove each other.”
They’re doing all of this for US. We the people voted them in! We told them we wanted a hard right crazy town ultra conservative non-government party that is going to topple the debt ceiling, plunge us into the absolute zero of a new cold austerity, and destroy any social security and Medicare we’ve spent our entire working lives earning! It’s what the people waaannnt!!! Who says that murder’s not an art?
Oh, they’ll be famous alright.
The name on everybody’s lips is going to be Those Assholes.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
If there were actually a few real moderates in the Republican caucus, they would have stopped this craven giveaway by McCarthy to the insurrectionist wing, which will now be running the House if he wins. They could have stopped voting for him, and come up with an alternative. They could even work with Democrats for this vote. But they keep voting for him.
If this group of radicals controls the House, it will be the culmination of the absolute collapse of the Republican Party as an actual participant in democracy. The House will no longer be a feasible body. At that point, one can only hope that the American people are aware of all of this, and vote accordingly in the next election. Right now, the radicals/ plan is to cut off funds for everything, let the debt ceiling not be raised, and then try to blame the chaos and economic calamity be blamed on the Democrats. They can’t get there at the ballot box, so they will do it by using the power they gerrymandered themselves into in the House. That is why Republicans should never be given power in any aspect of government, because they want to destroy it.
The chaos and economic calamity which would result from refusing to raise the debt ceiling would also hurt the Republicans’ donors, so the debt ceiling will be raised as necessary.
Libertarian ideology to the contrary, businesses, even giant ones, do need effective government.
Sooner or later, the failure to choose a Speaker, and swear in the new House members, will start to affect bottom lines adversely–if not by failure to raise the debt ceiling, then by other effects.
When that happens, the GOP’s tycoon donors will crack the whip. The donors will call up the non-nihilistic Republicans, and remind them where their campaign donations come from. The donors will also call up the nihilists, and remind them that the donors could search their sofa cushions and find enough money to fund challengers against them in 2024, while also, of course, ending all donations to the nihilists.
Selah. 😈
EXACTLY. The question is will all the Democrats, including Biden, actually recognize this?
No. Why should they? It will be great for DNC and similar group fundraising.
My New Year’s resolution was to be less cynical. I didn’t even last a week.
The etymology of today’s Wordle seems appropriate to describe the practice of politics in these dying days of our democracy.
With the 12th round still in progress, 14 Republicans have switched their votes to McCarthy, with perhaps a few more to come. What he has promised them?
Perhaps the donor class has promised to fund challengers to them in 2024 if they don’t get in line.
Probably virtually anything to get their vote. More power for them, more power to remove him if they are upset at anything he does; promise not to go against their wishes on any issue, including funding the government. That really should be more of the story conveyed by the media; what did he sell out, what did he give them?
David Frum wrote, “If reports are accurate, McCarthy is on verge of selling out the country to a nihilist faction, so that he can briefly occupy a now-powerless office, then cash in for whatever he can get after this fiasco.” That sounds accurate, but meanwhile everyone is breathlessly counting the floor votes.
Off topic: I don’t know what has happened to Beaker Street Set Lists. That site only runs as far as the 8-19-22 show now.
Tonight’s show still will be available from the Arkansas Rocks link, however.
Friday nights 7 PM – 8 PM North American Central Time:
The Magical Mystery Tour. Host Tom Wood takes a look at the Beatles from a different angle each week.
Friday nights 8 PM – 12 AM North American Central Time:
Beaker Street, the legendary rock radio program, has returned. Iconic host Clyde Clifford brings classics and rare gems.
Both shows can be found at https://www.arkansasrocks.com/
If you can’t catch Beaker Street live, MP3 files are available soon afterward at https://www.beakerstreetsetlists.com
Friday nights 7 PM – 8 PM North American Central Time:
The Magical Mystery Tour. Host Tom Wood takes a look at the Beatles from a different angle each week.
Friday nights 8 PM – 12 AM North American Central Time:
Beaker Street, the legendary rock radio program, has returned. Iconic host Clyde Clifford brings classics and rare gems.
Both shows can be found at https://www.arkansasrocks.com/
I don’t know what happened to Beaker Street Set Lists, but that site no longer goes later than the 8-19-22 show.
Well, I thought TurdPress had refused to post my first Beaker Street post because it had two links in it. If I ever quit this site, it will most likely be due to the inadequacies of TurdPress.
This is all Kabuki Theater! Republicans love this kinda thing. They don’t actually want to get anything accomplished, so what’s it to them? They just want to do pandering, ass kissing things like nominate Tr*mp for speaker and throw hissy fits on the floor. Anyone else think they are a scary looking bunch? I feel like I’m watching a Hills Have Eyes featurette
It may have come out the same way eventually, but Democrats misplayed this, they should have let them adjourn. Two more days of terrible publicity for Republicans, and humiliation for McCarthy. I immediately thought it was a mistake to unanimously vote No on adjournment. There was much too much chance that another vote would change one vote to McCarthy. Let them adjourn, get off the floor. Do not shout “NO!!!,.” and it would have been adjourned by voice vote. Democrats are not masters of strategy, though I bet that Nancy might have figured it out. How absolutely frustrating. Jason Crow worried that Gaetz might now get appointed to head of Armed Services Committee, and he might. Once they started changing electronic votes on adjournment, I turned the TV off, the rest was inevitable. A major part of politics is strategy, as being on the right side, and being decent, is unfortunately not enough.
Gotta disagree with you on this. Keeping the pressure on Kevin compressed the frequency of the votes, highlighting just how desperate he was.
As for what Nancy wanted, I suspect it was that members were sworn in as soon as possible. Constituent services were halted while this fiasco played out. Customer service is important.
I agree with William. A weekend of bad PR with McCarthy in the role of pathetic loser would have played well for Democrats, especially on the Sunday morning news shows. Revelations about ugly concessions McCarthy has made might also have been unearthed, damaging him further. Owooo, maggots! Scary!