Last week I wrote about the term “unprecedented” and how we should be cautious with the term, because history is filled with stories that could help us predict today’s events, if humankind could just learn from those stories of the past.
But we don’t learn. We are now heading into Week-4 of the Speaker-less House of Representatives, and we have now hit “unprecedented.”
While the House spins its wheels, wars are starting, and government shutdowns are looming. First Kevin McCarthy got the boot – unprecedented. Then Steve Scalise won the majority of his caucus but found himself short of 217 (votes needed to be elected Speaker), so he stepped aside for second-place finisher, Jim Jordan.
Since you and I last talked, Jordan has been cast aside by a consecutively lower vote in three floor votes, and finally his caucus voted to reject him completely. Then, nine Congressmen (I can use that term because no women volunteered for this job) all threw their hats in the ring, each thinking, for some reason, that he had a path to 217.
After meeting and voting all day, Republicans decided that Tom Emmer, from Minnesota, would be their Speaker-designate. Within a few short hours, ex-President Donald J. Trump tweeted (or X’d or Truthed) that Emmer is a RINO (Republican in Name Only) since he did not vote to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Emmer, a staunch conservative, withdrew his name minutes later.
Back to the drawing board. Now two other losers from the nine vying for the job are up for Speaker again. One of them will win and then go to the House floor for a vote. Does anyone expect this fifth-choice candidate to get to 217?
When asked about possibly working across party-lines to elect an acceptable Speaker that could get things done, Republicans have all echoed the same response, blaming Democrats for the state we are in now: “Eight Republicans voted with 100 percent of Democrats to oust McCarthy. Democrats caused this mess.”
Really? Does anyone really believe that two years ago, if Democrats were showing a comparable level of dysfunction, Republicans would have jumped up to save Nancy Pelosi? Right…
This is a Republican problem. This is a Republican embarrassment. This is a Republican-caused danger to our country. Wouldn’t it be nice if they’d just admit it, and then fix it?
Wouldn’t it be nice if any politician would admit to anything? That applies to you Bob Menendez, and you George Santos. In fact, to a slightly lesser degree since those two have indictments against them, it applies to all of Congress, both houses, both parties.
Republicans can’t agree on who should lead them. How comical is that? How about George Santos? He may already have Speaker listed on his resume anyway.
Did you hear Trump weigh in on this chaos? He actually said this: “There’s only one person that can do it all the way. Do you know who that is? Jesus Christ. If Jesus came down and said, ‘I want to be Speaker,’ he would do it. Other than that, I haven’t seen, I haven’t seen anybody that can guarantee it,” Trump summarized.
I’m not sure that even Trump can get Jesus to take the job.
So, I guess we’re stuck with choice #5 or #6, both election-deniers in 2020, which gets an approval from Trump. It seems sad that it is so repugnant to even discuss working with the “other” party, that we are willing to settle on a hard-right fifth or sixth choice solution, that may not get to 217. If he does get elected, he may be out of a job in six months, starting this whole mess all over again.
Have you noticed no one talks about issues, party platforms, ideas for the country? Blind loyalty to an individual is sufficient. We’ll figure out what we stand for later…. or not.
Curt MacRae, lives in Coldwater, MI / publishes rants on rant-able topics at this site.
All published posts are tweeted curtmacrae) – direct feedback welcomed at rantsbymac@gmail.com
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