Next Speaker of the House? (6 Viewers)

[MT15]

There’s a lot of doubt that Kevin McCarthy will be able to get enough votes to become Speaker. It certainly won’t happen on the first ballot. Already Boboert and MTG are publicly at odds over it.

Maybe this is worth it’s own thread to watch. One person mentioned is Scalise.

 

[MT15]

Yep, after a call from Trump directly to Biggs.

 

[MT15]

Evidently several calls were made, MTG scurried around to help Trump reach everyone. But sure, Trump is finished. These craven Rs still jump through hoops for him.

 

[superchuck500]

 

[MT15]

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Will 4 more R's mistakenly vote PRESENT?

 

[bdb13]

Trump is toxic and energizing to the independents, Democrats, and few moderate Republicans who despise him.. Republicans set up with increased odds of screwing themselves heading into 2024.. is my read.

 

[MT15]

Trump is toxic and energizing to the independents, Democrats, and few moderate Republicans who despise him.. Republicans set up with increased odds of screwing themselves heading into 2024.. is my read.

I sure hope you’re right. I’m not all that sure of it.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

How many damn people does it take to escort McCarthy to the chair?

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Someone really need to tell Jefferies he is not Barack Obama.

 

[nolaspe]

Eff the repubs...

 

[SFIDC3]

What really needs to happen is a middle party forms.

Yup, and that middle party is made up of the sane R's left....which will fracture the party entirely....I'm all for it, in the short run it will effectively destroy the party, in the long term it may be it's only hope of getting back to sanity....

 

[bird]

More parties, Trump imprisoned, Santos kicked out of congress…on and on.

Imo, the problem, such as it is, lies with the electorate.

 

[J-DONK]

Yup, and that middle party is made up of the sane R's left....which will fracture the party entirely....I'm all for it, in the short run it will effectively destroy the party, in the long term it may be it's only hope of getting back to sanity....

Millennials as a generation getting locked out of wealth creation has already doomed conservative ideology in this country. The demographic cohorts voting for Republicans: Silent generation, Boomers, and X. It will take time, but something will have to give.

Millennials aren’t getting more rightwing with age. I suspect I know why | Arwa Mahdawi

The radicalism of my generation is often attributed to housing costs. But, as I found when I had my first child, there are much deeper issues at play, writes Arwa Mahdawi

www.theguardian.com

 

[bdb13]

Millennials as a generation getting locked out of wealth creation has already doomed conservative ideology in this country. The demographic cohorts voting for Republicans: Silent generation, Boomers, and X. It will take time, but something will have to give.

Millennials aren’t getting more rightwing with age. I suspect I know why | Arwa Mahdawi

The radicalism of my generation is often attributed to housing costs. But, as I found when I had my first child, there are much deeper issues at play, writes Arwa Mahdawi

www.theguardian.com

We've got no money and we've got no god.. don't believe that's a great combination for Republicans to face moving forward.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I’ve always wondered this about the constant standing ovations
================

Years ago I was assigned to review a painfully unfunny off-Broadway comedy. As the show lumbered to an ignominious conclusion and the actors took their bows, I leaped from my aisle seat and sprinted, eager to be the first to find the blessed relief of the exit door.
In the lobby, a young man in a headset gave me a furious look. “You’re supposed to stay,” he declared, “and clap!”


He’d mistaken me, it seemed, for one of the people at this performance who had been given free admission to the show, apparently with the proviso they stand at the end and cheer — to impress, clumsily, professional critics like me.

It was a memory that came back to me this week as I watched the proceedings in the House, a spectacle of Beckett-like surreality, with its own odd, theatrical aspects. One of the oddest is the Ritual of the Clapping Politicians.

At the start of each fruitless round of voting for the House speakership, someone from the ranks of each political party offered a nominating speech, a glowing summation of the sterling qualities of the nominee.

A mind-numbing number of times, flowery versions of these encomiums were bestowed on two principal contenders, California Republican Kevin McCarthy and New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries. (A dissident Republican faction rotated through the nominations of several spoiler candidates.)

And as each speech finished for the two major contestants, the same ritual repeated: The supporting contingents rose and clapped wildly.


As the week drew on and the House members went through this act again and again and again, I started to wonder: Who or what was this demonstration for?

McCarthy and Jeffries sometimes sat through these stage-y interludes with neutral expressions — as if they had joined the statuary of some of their forebears in the Capitol Rotunda.

Were these cheers meant to salve their egos? Were they a show for the cameras, as if viewers had to be reminded that the members were excited by their leaders? (Or, over this weird week, still excited?)

Were they intended as team-building exercises, a variation of the circle-gathering by players and coaches before the big game?

In any case, our hyperventilating system of performative politics seems to dictate that everyone stay, and clap. Because clapping as a rote mechanism is a national pastime.



The annual State of the Union address is a prime example. Does anyone not find tedious the rising to applaud every other minute by the party faithful?

Is the success of the speech somehow tied to the number of times members pull themselves out of their seats and flex their aching knees?

And if noisy hails to the chief by others are not enough, how about the behavior of the nation’s most avid collector of compliments, former president Donald Trump, who, when standing before crowds, regularly claps for himself?……..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2023/01/07/house-applause-mccarthy-jeffries/

 

[SystemShock]

... so, come Monday, what's the over/under on the first order of business being Hunter Biden's laptop?

 

[Lapaz]

The next 2 years are going to be chaotic. I expect at least 1 government shutdown.

 

[bird]

... so, come Monday, what's the over/under on the first order of business being Hunter Biden's laptop?

Man, that is a bet I am staying away from.