Chaos in Congress

[N.E. Brigand]

This is beyond chaos and into some other level.

Sen. Mullen's offer to fight Teamsters president Sean O'Brien was a response to this tweet about Mullen's height:

[N.E. Brigand]

This is beyond chaos and into some other level.

Speaking on Newsmax today, Rep. Tim Burchett, who yesterday appeared to have been shoved by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, seemed to agree with the host's assessment that Rep. Nancy Mace has information that she could use to hurt McCarthy.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Santos has declared that he will not run for re-election next year. Will that be enough to stave off another attempt at expel him, which many expect to be forthcoming from the NY Republicans who tried and failed before? Hard to say. I suspect that the Democrats who voted against his expulsion because of due process concerns may mostly switch their votes. But will enough of the GOP caucus risk reducing their already razer-thin majority to reach the 2/3 threshold necessary? I doubt it.

ETA: Here is the report. It is actually only 3 pages of subtance (other than the title page and t, so it is not a difficult read. It was unanimously adopted by the Ethics Panel, which I assume has a small majority of GOP members.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/16/politics ... index.html

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This time the Santos expulsion resolution is being introduced by the chairman of the Ethics panel, Mississippi Republican Michael Guest.

House Ethics chairman introduces resolution to expel George Santos from Congress

[Dave_LF]

Santos's corruption is A story, but in my opinion, THE story is how someone like him wound up running for and winning office in the first place. There's some reporting today that his campaign was largely funded by the ex-wife of a Florida billionaire, but that is only the beginning of what should be a major news investigation and story (and perhaps a DOJ investigation too).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here is some more about that.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is a very good question (assuming it is real).

[Sunsilver]

Maybe it's a fake?

[N.E. Brigand]

I had no idea that Abraham Lincoln, in his first and only term as a member of Congress (he was then a member of the Whig Party), introduced resolutions calling for President Polk to explain U.S. conduct in Mexican-American War.

Noted here because earlier today, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that the U.S. never fought wars to gain territory.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

George Anthony Devolder Santos has been expelled from the House of Representatives.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here is the full roll call vote. Among those not voting were former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and, interestingly, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2023/roll691.xml

[N.E. Brigand]

George Anthony Devolder Santos has been expelled from the House of Representatives.

A few words from the New York Times:

"The move consigned Mr. Santos, who over the course of his short political career invented ties to the Holocaust, Sept. 11 and the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orland, to a genuine place in history: He is the first person to be expelled from the House without first being convicted of a federal crime or supporting the Confederacy.'

A few words from Wonder Woman:



A few words from Congressman Max Miller, Republican of Ohio's gerrymandered 7th District -- which extends from Cleveland's inner ring suburbs (just a mile from my home) to rural farmland sixty miles south of here. Rep. Miller was in the news a couple months ago for saying that Israel should suspend the rules of war and turn Gaza into a parking lot. Today he's in the news again, because yesterday he "alluded to a personal impact of Rep. Santos's conduct," which he expanded upon today: "Earlier this year I learned that the Santos campaign had charged my personal credit card - and the personal card of my Mother -- for contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits," which has resulted in Miller and his mother spending "tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees" to clear it up.

(Yesterday when Miller referred to Santos as a "crook," Santos replied by saying that Miller is "accused of being a woman beater." As Wikipedia says: Miller dated Trump White House aide Stephanie Grisham from 2019 to 2020. In October 2021 Stephanie Grisham said he had 'been physically abusive' to her, 'cheated' on her, and 'lied' to her. Miller filed a defamation lawsuit against her. He voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice in August 2023.")

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I saw an interview this morning with Rep. David Joyce, a member of the Ethics Committee, who indicated that he believed that it was Rep. Miller's email to his colleagues about his loss and that of his mother that ultimately led to Santos expulsion after there appeared to be movement against voting to expel him as a result of the urging of Speaker Johnson and the GOP leadership not to vote to expel Santos.

[Dave_LF]

or supporting the Confederacy.

Hey; is that still expulsion worthy? Because if so, we should be able to get rid of M "we need a national divorce" TG too at minimum.

[Frelga]

Screenshot_20231202-105740.png (576.88 KiB) Viewed 5854 times

[N.E. Brigand]

And Rep. Patrick McHenry, the acting speaker pro tempore, has said that he will resign from that position if Republicans try to pass bills without first voting to give him the explicit authority to move legislation. If he should quit, he would be succeeded by the next person on Kevin McCarthy's secret list of temporary replacements. No one knows who that is.

Patrick McHenry, the North Carolina Republican who was sort of in charge of the House of Representatives for three weeks in October (between the speakerships of Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson), has announced that he will not seek reelection in 2024.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Tom Suozzi, who had represented the NY 3rd District until he gave it up to unsuccessfully try to challenge Kathy Hochul for the Democratic nomination for NY Governor in 2022, will now be the Democratic nominee in the special election to replace Santos that will take place in February. Suozzi travelled to Albany to meet with Hochul to successfully convince her not to block him from being the nominee. In addition to make certain promises to her (primarily that he will run as a strong defender of reproductive rights despite his Roman Catholic beliefs), he apologized to her for the personal attacks he made during the 2022 primary.

While Biden won the district by 8 points, it has apparently moved considerably to the right since then, so it will be a tough battle. Flipping that seat would further cut in the GOP's razor-thin House majority (particularly if, as continues to be rumored, Kevin McCarthy resigns at the end of the year).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

If he does indeed resign, that will further lessen the GOP majority. House vacancies must be filled with a special election, and I doubt that Newsom will scramble to do so as soon as possible. My presumption is that McCarthy's Bakersfield district would still be a safe GOP district, but I don't know that for sure.

ETA: Or, maybe not.

Or maybe yes.

Former speaker Kevin McCarthy will retire from Congress at end of year

[N.E. Brigand]

While Biden won the district by 8 points, it has apparently moved considerably to the right since then, so it will be a tough battle. Flipping that seat would further cut in the GOP's razor-thin House majority (particularly if, as continues to be rumored, Kevin McCarthy resigns at the end of the year).

Any chance you have tomorrow's winning lottery numbers?

It does seem like Republicans have the tiniest sliver of control in the House is more disruptive than if they had a more comfortable majority, though.