The headline says it all. But there's been no movement: 19 Republicans voted against him in the first round and 19 in the second round. There's still no clear substitute for McCarthy, since his supporters are maintaining their loyalty so far. But someone's ambition is going to break through soon and then we'll have another candidate to rally around.
30 thoughts on “Kevin McCarthy loses again”
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Do we know why Dems haven't tried peeling six Republicans into their coalition? Or is the US House perfectly polarized?
Conservatism is like a roach motel, whatever checks in never checks out.
1) We don't now that they haven't;
2) Such attempts are almost certain to fail.
They would need to find six Republicans who were either looking to retire after this term, were in secure moderate districts safe from being primaries, or willing to fall on their sword.
Non-rhetorical question: why would dems want to do that? Even if such a thing were possible, it would end with a republican speaker who i guess ostensibly would be a "moderate" but would preside over the same batshit insane GOP caucus who have zero interest in accomplishing anything positive. But the current situation leaves the GOP house in, as they say, disarray and creates what are likely long lasting divisions and antipathy withing their caucus. So even if we could get 6 republicans to do it, it seems more advantageous to let them publicly humiliate mccarthy and the party as a whole as incompetent and petty.
1. Not the Dems job to save Republicans from themselves. Perhaps if voters want effective governance, they'll remember how foolish Republicans are when given power and vote differently in future elections.
2. Not proven that there are six Republicans willing to join the Dems in a coalition. Who exactly are these persuadable Republicans willing to incur the wrath of their own voters to support any Democrat?
3. Not clear why the Dems would want ownership over the mess that will be the 118th Congress. Helping Republicans will simply allow the media to dump all problems on "both sides."
I realize I'm being naive w/r/t DC, but the Alaska legislature has had coalition majorities for years. True, DC has meager pickings for Repub flippers. After ex-Dem Jeff Van Drew of NJ, there's barely six in lean-Dem districts.
Still, they could be persuaded to vote for a Dem-backed speaker if they were promised, say, a revitalized Appalachia or some other big lift that benefits red districts while reflecting Dem values.
Why would any "moderate" person ever want to preside over a pack of jackals savoring his or her demise? No, I do not see this happening. Nor, at this point, its desirability.
It would be stupid to do so for another week. What will most likely happen is that McCarthey, with democrat support, will change the winning condition to plurality. (This is what has always happened in the past when this situation arose.) Then the 19 stupidest republicans will have the choice of voting explicitly for McCarthey or implicitly for Jeffries.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. I feel guilty reveling in political dysfunction, when so much needs to be done. But...
First Republican to promise a Biden impeachment as the House's top priority would surely be the instant front-runner.
Kevin (McCarthy) has probably promised this long ago. I thought it was a given that this will happen. Revenge, you know.
Crazies demand more! They are drunk with power.
I seem to recall he sort hedged when asked if impeaching Biden would be a top priority. That's one of the main reasons he's facing opposition from the likes of Gosar, Gaetz, and Boebert. He's not batshit insane enough.
(What, exactly, they plan to impeach Biden *for*, other than having the temerity to be a Democratic president, isn't clear.)
He's head of the Biden Crime Family™!
He'd need six other Republican crossovers, but if he got desperate McCarthy could approach the Democrats about a coalition government in exchange for concessions.
McCarthey will change the definition of win to plurality. He'd be willing to bet that the crazies will vote for him over jeffries.
He is smiling, shaking hands, playing the martyr and mentally kicking himself for kissing Trump's ring at Mar-a-Lago after Jan6.
I don't think he is smart enough to "mentally kick himself".
They need a Youngkin. Elise!
Seriously if I were Kev I'd endorse Elise (with a secret deal with her that she'd support him later when she gets ousted) and force the knuckledraggers to vote against a young woman. It would fail probably but would set them both up pretty well for 24 I think. Long shot I know because she's so young, but she's got what they so desperately need: proven ability to play both sides.
Nineteen never kevins seems like a lot. And he's got to eventually pick off eleven of them to win. That's a lot of Manchins.
I guess he's 15 total short. So he'll need a couple of Sinemas as well.
Not that I believe it will happen, but the speaker of the House doesn't have to be an incumbent member of the House of Representatives. So: Speaker Donald Trump? Speaker Newt Gingrich? Speaker Kari Lake? Speaker Steve Bannon?
McCarthy has 70 members on the record as saying they will never vote for anyone other than McCarthy.
Maybe, maybe not. As the party of Trump and Santos, I don't trust anything they "say".
Somewhere, John Boehner is laughing uproariously.
Every minute that the GOP fails to pick a leader means one more minute delay in our ability to learn about the horrors of Hunter Biden and all the other useless dreck from that group. Let's see, 2 x 365 x 24 x 60 = 1051200 - 324 (today) = 1050876 minutes to go until these loonies are gone.
3 votes and the MAGA seditionist wing of the MAGA nutbag party is now 20 votes solidly behind Jim Jordan (an even bigger shithead than McCarthy).
I would think that any concession given to Democrats, for support or not voting in the next round, would completely sink McCarthy. Assuming McCarthy gets his ticket punched, he will need the Democrats later in the year to raise the debt limit and keep the government funded, which will of course result in his ouster as Speaker.
Perhaps after another day or two or three of this, Democrats may get tired of watching this shit show (notwithstanding the entertainment value), and leave the chamber so reducing McCarthy's magic number, assuming he still has any support left.