You may have seen reports that Republicans have failed in their attempt to impeach Homeland secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. But it's not really true.
Three Republicans defected to make the vote 215-215. Rep. Blake Brooks then switched his vote to No to make it 214-216, but this was purely a procedural move that allows impeachment to be brought up again tomorrow. If Steve Scalise, who has been getting treatment for multiple myeloma, is back in the chamber, it will pass 216-215.
So hold your applause. This is still a live issue.
UPDATE: Apparently Scalise won't be back tomorrow. Maybe later.
The impeachments will not stop until something something
Morale will continue until the beatings improve.
This is still a live issue.
No. It is a thoroughly dead Orc. And it's only twitchin' because it's got MAH AXE buried in its NERVOUS SYSTEM!
At this point, even if they do resurrect it -- and they're stupid enough that they very well might -- and even if it does eventually pass, it is so thoroughly exposed as a botch of a bad middle-school production of a bad play that even their paid fluffers on Fox will barely be able to make the usual gestures.
Now that's not to say that their Cult of Stupids won't immediately declare victory (and threaten to shoot any family member who doesn't agree). But it won't even convince them of anything. It's all pathetic Kabuki from here on.
I can’t bear to watch Fox on television but I will occasionally look at their web site. The current headlines are “Chaos On The Floor” and “Republicans fail to impeach DHS Secretary Myorkis in stunning vote”. So, yeah, even on Fox it’s being portrayed as a major defeat for Republicans.
It's still funny.
It's high-fkin-larious. They thought they were gonna win. They had bought Super Bowl ad time. And then a Dem shows up whom they thought was stuck in the hospital and ... now Marge, She Of Many Gym Partners, is ranting about backstabbing Demon-rats.
It does not, however, qualify as classical tragedy OR as classical comedy, because ... no Greek playwright, let alone even a marginal Hollywood producer, would ever touch it.
Vous avez raison. But it feels like one of the throw away Star Trek episodes when a Federation science team meddled with the local culture and away they went!
concur, which (conveniently) was one of the Dem talking points all along: there's no there there; this is a Seinfeld-esque show about nothing.
I honestly would not be surprised if this turns into Survivor: The Speaker, episode ... 3? (how far back do we count? Ryan? Boehner?) if only to manufacture something -- ANYTHING -- to keep their mugs on TV.
How will this affect the proposed impeachment of POTUS?
My understanding is that was already dead, first because there's no there there at all, second because Comer has bungled the PR so badly, and third because it can't be linked directly to a Major Republican Campaign Issue like TEH BORDERZZ!! the way the Failed Mayorkas Impeachment was.
If anything, given its embarrassing collapse, I would say it makes an effort wrt Biden even less likely now.
Republicans in disarray!
They can keep introducing the bill every day until they finally get it passed. Then they can impeach him again. But the damage has been done. Coupled with the failure of the Mosaic Israel aid bill and the histrionics over an immigration bill their own party helped draft, House Republicans have confirmed in spades that the election of a new Speaker changed nothing. They remain a leaderless rabble intent on doing nothing except help Trump get elected because they know it's the only way they'll keep their majority.
I’m not so sure that these votes (and refusals to vote) won’t hurt members’ re-election chances. Trump hasn’t had much for coattails; his popular-vote loss was by a larger margin the second time; his endorsed candidates have rarely won. They’re trying to please TFG at their own risk. Are they going to run on their record of screwing their own Speakers?
And TFG is going to lose anyway.
An own-goal is still an own-goal. It’s reassuring to have another piece of evidence that the Party of Stupid can always get stupider. You might think that that there would be somebody on that team who can count, but no.
Sure enjoying the headlines though! And a benefit: even low-information voters notice headlines.
The Republican House is willing to grant a future Democratically controlled Congress the power to impeach Clarence Thomas -- that's my reading of this effort.
Think of the benefit of trying the case in the Senate, for everyone to learn of the ethical failures of Clarence Thomas.
That's a very nice reading. I'd like to see that.
Concur. @D_Ohrk_E1 found the pony.
OMG, not another high tech lynching?
Well, technically any Congress *could* impeach and remove Clarence Thomas if it deemed it necessary, and lord knows he deserves it. A better analogy would be whether any Congress should impeach and remove a cabinet secretary because they don't like the way he's doing his job, not because of any specific crime or misconduct they think he's committed. I don't agree with the Unitary Executive theory and think Congressional oversight is a thing, but this is still batshit insane.
It's not meant to be analogous; it's meant to reflect on how low the bar has been set by Republicans, in the proper use of impeachment.
If the GOP thinks Mayorkas can be impeached on zero evidence of a high crime or misdemeanor, then surely the gamut and breadth of citable ethical lapses of Thomas more than clears the GOP's own bar.
What's the point of having ethical norms if no one's going to be held responsible to them? Likewise, what's the point of having a Constitution and its Amendments if no one's going to be held responsible to them?
The Mayorkas impeachment was always going to end in a humiliating defeat for Republicans. The only surprise is that the defeat happened in the House instead of the Senate. Like the constant flirtation with government shutdowns, it was a gesture to satisfy their rabid base which contributed nothing to either their policy goals (if they even have any at this point) or their general election prospects.
I'm not eager to see Democrats head down the same road. Fortunately, they don't seem inclined to do so, probably because our base is still mostly sane.
While Thomas and Alito are allegedly so corrupt they have to resign for the court to regain the dignity it once had, impeaching Thomas when he has 34 votes in the Senate to Acquit is useless, and only feeds the public's perception that impeachment is a meaningless political stunt.
As a friend of mine said, these guys could f**k up a two car funeral.
I do not understand the politics here- even if it passes - so what? Are voters even in specific districts will care? For that matter, will voters in swing districts care? It’s a wash all around. The one take away is that 99% of GOP delegation is all in for empty posturing- quite pathetic if you ask me.
I think it's all about-- and only about-- the hermetically-sealed world of Magaland. What matters there is Fox and OAN sound bites, mentions on Bannon's podcast, retweets by certain pillars of that community. And of course earning a passing glance from the orange god-king through complete self-abasement.
I don't know that it's meant to actually attract voters or scare them way from Biden in any real way. But maybe they could say how that's supposed to work?
Forget the myths you've heard. These...are not very bright guys. And things got out of hand.
Yes, as it did with Dobbs — they had no choice but to vote for each Federalist-Society nominee, making the outcome inevitable. Some of them may have been smart enough to see that, but too dumb to find a way out.
"Republicans faced a humiliating series of setbacks, including defections that sank the effort to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary."
Humiliation is satisfying even if they eventually get their shit together for 5 minutes some day.
The NY special election to replace Santos is next Tuesday. The Democrat will probably win. They have a very tight window to get this done.
Which Democrat? The one running as the Democratic candidate (Tom Suozzi), or the Democrat running as a Republican, who forgot to switch her party affiliation (Mazi Pilip)?
“The three Republicans opposing impeachment were [Rep. Mike] Gallagher [of Wisconsin], Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado and Tom McClintock of California. Republican Rep. Blake Moore of Utah was the Republican who switched his vote on procedural grounds.” https://apnews.com/article/house-republicans-impeach-homeland-security-secretary-mayorkas-8209736501ed4fe12e4b164443d6a8a9
Not Blake Brooks as Kevin said.
A motion to reconsider a losing motion has to be made by someone who voted “no” the first time.
Let's give three or more cheers for Dem Representative Al Green, who left his hospital bed and was wheeled into the Congress for the vote, then wheeled back after the Motion to Impeach Mayorkas for not Being Able to Spin Straw into Gold failed.
Yes, I figure that Rep. Green was Tired of Being Alone. And this was a message to Dems: Let's Stay Together.
Oh, and the stand-alone aid-to-Israel bill failed also, though it’s not clear this was ever more than performative.
Exactly, two votes failed in a single day, This is likely a historical record never achieved before.
Such a thing never happened to Paul Ryan or John Boehner, not even to McCarthy. They have truly achieved new levels of incompetence.
Yes, they may fix it for the impeachment but they will have a harder time pretending to be competent.
They really ought to replace the Speaker. After that very smooth transition happens, they'll be able to pass all sorts of stuff!
How about Green?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68228938.amp
Aw, heck!
The Republican's plot was scuppered by far-right lame duck Ken Buck! That's absolutely amazin'!