The current tenure of the Republican party as "leaders" in the House of Representatives has - to put it nicely - been a shitshow. When they first took charge this past January, it took them an unprecedented 15 tries to finally get enough people to vote for Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that he was able to assume the speakership.

The main stumbling block was a small group within their party with the absurd name of "the Freedom Caucus". These are about 10-15 extremists whose apparent goal is to destroy our government from within. McCarthy had to make a bunch of concessions to win their vote, including the one that did him in. That concession was to allow just one person to push for a "no confidence" vote to oust him.

After the "Freedom Caucus" failed to shut down government, due to Democrats stepping in and helping McCarthy pass a last-minute keep-the-lights-on funding bill, they revolted. Matt Gaetz (child-trafficker-FL) exercised that one-person vote, and McCarthy was ousted - the first time this has every happened.

So now, the House - rudderless - is adrift on a sea of Republican incompetence. The first couple names that came up as potential new Speakers have gone nowhere. First, Steve Scalise was floated, but he was not about to go through the embarrassing gauntlet that McCarthy did, so he withdrew himself from contention after the conference vote (he still got more votes than Gym Jordan).

Yesterday, Jordon fell far short of the needed 217 votes after twenty (count 'em - 20!) fellow Republicans chose to vote for someone else. Those votes were mostly for McCarthy, Scalise, or Lee Zeldin (who is not even in office anymore!). The Dems uniformly voted for Hakim Jeffries (D-NY), because... well... not their circus - not their clowns. It was worse than predicted. There was supposed to be a 2nd vote yesterday, but it got postponed until today, likely so that that Jordon's supporters (and possibly his staff) could send threatening texts to the wife of at least one GOP House rep to gin up more votes.

This is a perfect encapsulation of who they are - they can't win on merit, so they try to win on fear. Methinks this will not work on other Republican Congresspeople. Catering to the extremists in their own party is a recipe for more of the same. Instead, "regular" Republicans should try to select a moderate that maybe a few Dems could vote for. That would neuter the "Freedom Caucus", and move towards some bipartisanship.

Another option would be for a handful of Republicans in contested districts won by Biden to cross party lines and vote for Jeffries. They could change their party affiliation to "Independent", if it helps (per the suggestion of a friend of mine). This would at least put the adults back in charge, and those that voted for him would get prime committee memberships.

Something has to be done. With wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine, and another potential government shutdown looming, the country can't continue to limp along with the House running on backup power. The Republicans have shown they don't know how to govern. Time for something different.