McCarthy loses sixth time. House adjourns as pressure mounts on GOP

[ThatRobGuy]

January 4, 2023 GOP deadlocked over House speaker vote

A stalemate over electing a House speaker continues.

www.cnn.com

It would seem as if the far-right contingent of the GOP could be setting themselves up for situation that could backfire.

By not voting for Kevin and dragging the process out, the longer it goes, the greater the chances that Democrats form an "alliance" of sorts with moderate republicans to get a moderate GOP member the gavel by agreeing to give them the votes.

If the GOP is holding out for someone further right of McCarthy to get the spot, there's a good chance they could shoot themselves in the foot and end up with someone further left. (or someone who's not even a member of the house of representatives)

 

[JSRG]

By not voting for Kevin and dragging the process out, the longer it goes, the greater the chances that Democrats form an "alliance" of sorts with moderate republicans to get a moderate GOP member the gavel by agreeing to give them the votes.

I don't think that's a plausible scenario (but who knows). The difficulty is this would require getting a lot of Democrats to sign on. Even if their caucus leader straight up said "okay, vote for this more liberal Republican, it's the best we'll get" then I expect they could get a lot of their party on board, but they'd find themselves with the same issue as the Republicans of being unable to get some of the more extreme members of their party to go along with it. Remember that to get a majority, you'd need a Republican to replace every dissenting Democrat (and there would almost certainly be a few dissenting Democrats if the suggestion was to vote for a Republican) and then enough Republicans to cover the remaining difference.

If some agreement is arranged between Democrats and the more liberal Republicans, I feel like you'd end up with a Democrat Speaker (perhaps one more conservative than the Democrat's current choice, though), because you could get all of the Democrats behind that, and would only need to get a few of the more liberal Republicans to join in.

 

[eleos1954]

January 4, 2023 GOP deadlocked over House speaker vote

A stalemate over electing a House speaker continues.

www.cnn.com

It would seem as if the far-right contingent of the GOP could be setting themselves up for situation that could backfire.

By not voting for Kevin and dragging the process out, the longer it goes, the greater the chances that Democrats form an "alliance" of sorts with moderate republicans to get a moderate GOP member the gavel by agreeing to give them the votes.

If the GOP is holding out for someone further right of McCarthy to get the spot, there's a good chance they could shoot themselves in the foot and end up with someone further left. (or someone who's not even a member of the house of representatives)

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well ... who is the 2nd "runner up" for speaker? Rather than just a yea or nay for one person .... how come they just don't put two forward and then take a vote between those two?

 

[GreatLakes4Ever]

well ... who is the 2nd "runner up" for speaker? Rather than just a yea or nay for one person .... how come they just don't put two forward and then take a vote between those two?

That will take a change of rules which might require a majority to agree to. I say might because there is a chance they can’t change the rules at all unless there is a Speaker.

 

[Tuur]

Is anyone else thinking maybe they should have the reporters outside and have white smoke coming from a chimney when they make their choice, and black smoke if they haven't?

 

[Desk trauma]

Is anyone else thinking maybe they should have the reporters outside and have white smoke coming from a chimney when they make their choice, and black smoke if they haven't?

In one of the other threads I suggested bricking up the exits until they vote someone in.

 

[Pommer]

In one of the other threads I suggested bricking up the exits until they vote someone in.

Gee, would you look at the calendar, how time flies and just in time for another January 6th!

 

[ThatRobGuy]

well ... who is the 2nd "runner up" for speaker? Rather than just a yea or nay for one person .... how come they just don't put two forward and then take a vote between those two?

I don't think they know or care. It would seem that the small faction of the "Maga crew" are simply just being difficult or trying to virtue signal their objection to what they've branded "the swamp", but they don't really have a realistic plan of their own.

It's a big of a long winded assessment, and Shapiro's looking at it from a conservative viewpoint, but he does make a lot of good points about the situation

...but he does hit the nail on the head, the small faction keeps saying "no" to Kevin, but they're not offering any feasible alternative of their own.
"if you can provide me a name of another viable alternative you want to put up for the job that has a viable chance of winning, I'd be willing to consider it, but given that all of the other viable alternatives have no interest and are all backing McCarthy, then I fail to see what their strategy is here"