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Insanity (once again into the Breach)
Author: BobR
Date: 01/04/2023 13:44:49
It's been said that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That certainly seemed to be the case yesterday as 3 separate votes in the U.S. House of Representatives failed to deliver the Speakership to Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Actually, the results did change, and not in his favor. Perhaps we should reclassify that as the definition of desperation.
This has rarely happened in U.S. history (exceptions being 1855, 1923, and 1997-98). As one writer put it, The House Republican Circular Firing Squad Over Who Will Be Speaker Is a Vision of Things to Come:
The schadenfreude is delicious. Rep Boeber (R-CO) - who barely eked out a win in her reliably red district - reportedly yelled "This is bullshit!", after McCarthy claimed he had "earned this job". Boebert and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) also supposedly claimed they'd vote for Hakim Jefferies (D-NY) over McCarthy (Jefferies is the Speaker candidate the Dems nominated, and have voted for as a 100% bloc). That may have been an empty threat, but who knows?
It's safe to assume there is some backroom wheeling and dealing (you know, the sort of thing that Republicans accuse Democrats of all the time), before they resume the voting exercise today.
Lost in all of the publicity is the disgusting reality that George Santos (R-NY) - the liar and likely criminal who has committed fraud in Brazil - is going to be seated, despite strident objections from Democrats. This just further amplifies the cravenness of the Republican party, who refuse to discipline or purge from their membership anyone, regardless of their indescretions.
But maybe that's the insanity on the part of the electorate - they keep voting in Republicans expecting that they'll do the right thing and act in the general interest of governance. The events of yesterday (and likely today) show us that those hopes are not based on reality.
someone is having a very bad day
This has rarely happened in U.S. history (exceptions being 1855, 1923, and 1997-98). As one writer put it, The House Republican Circular Firing Squad Over Who Will Be Speaker Is a Vision of Things to Come:
Kevin McCarthy has been the House Republican leader since 2018, but by Tuesday's morning prelude to the vote for speaker of the House, it seemed at least a dozen Republicans would vote against him.
Following a Republican conference meeting in which the various factions were reportedly yelling and cursing at each other, the assembled loons of the House Freedom Caucus came out against McCarthy publicly. Matt Gaetz announced that, "If you want to drain the swamp, you cannot put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise." McCarthy responded by saying Gaetz had told him the night before that he didn't care if Democrat Hakeem Jeffries ended up as speaker. McCarthy alleged some holdouts had demanded specific committee assignments or chairmanships in return for their votes. Gaetz said he'd been threatened with being stripped of his assignments if he didn't vote for McCarthy, a threat that reportedly came up again in the Tuesday conference meeting. The impressively shameless Lauren Boebert, who came within 500 or so votes of losing a seat for Republicans in a district Donald Trump carried by eight points in 2020, also declared her opposition.
The schadenfreude is delicious. Rep Boeber (R-CO) - who barely eked out a win in her reliably red district - reportedly yelled "This is bullshit!", after McCarthy claimed he had "earned this job". Boebert and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) also supposedly claimed they'd vote for Hakim Jefferies (D-NY) over McCarthy (Jefferies is the Speaker candidate the Dems nominated, and have voted for as a 100% bloc). That may have been an empty threat, but who knows?
It's safe to assume there is some backroom wheeling and dealing (you know, the sort of thing that Republicans accuse Democrats of all the time), before they resume the voting exercise today.
Lost in all of the publicity is the disgusting reality that George Santos (R-NY) - the liar and likely criminal who has committed fraud in Brazil - is going to be seated, despite strident objections from Democrats. This just further amplifies the cravenness of the Republican party, who refuse to discipline or purge from their membership anyone, regardless of their indescretions.
But maybe that's the insanity on the part of the electorate - they keep voting in Republicans expecting that they'll do the right thing and act in the general interest of governance. The events of yesterday (and likely today) show us that those hopes are not based on reality.
someone is having a very bad day
