Chaos in Congress

[N.E. Brigand]

Just a few hours ago, Matt Gaetz sent out a fundraising email that said, "Kevin McCarthy will never get my vote for Speaker."

And Gaetz voted present, so I guess the suckers who gave to him won't get their money back. There are five present votes so far. That reduces the total from 434 to 429, of which McCarthy would need 215. He'll get at least 216, so this saga is finally ending.

Edited to add: Olivia Beavers of Politico says that Gaetz had indeed finally agreed to vote for McCarthy (in exchange for what, I wonder?) but after Andy Biggs and Eli Crane, both preceding him in the roll, flipped from voting for others to voting present, Gaetz didn't need to vote for McCarthy, so he voted present again.

David Frum asks a good question: what did Donald Trump get from Kevin McCarthy in exchange for Trump delivering Biggs and Gaetz?

(Edited to correct order of Trump and McCarthy. Thanks to V for catching my error.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm glad that the final vote where McCarthy finally gets his prize turned out to be on 1/7 rather than 1/6.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

David Frum asks a good question: what did Kevin McCarthy get from Donald Trump in exchange for Trump delivering Biggs and Gaetz?

Shouldn't it be the other way around: what did Trump get from McCarthy in exchange for Trump delivering Biggs and Gaetz?

[N.E. Brigand]

Yes, you're right. I paraphrased Frum incorrectly.

Hakeem Jeffries led for the last time this week at 210-209, and then Kevin McCarthy took the lead and didn't look back. He secured the Speakership with the vote of Ryan Zinke of Montana, which because of the five present votes, was as the 215th cast in this ballot the deciding vote for McCarthy. They still have to tally up the ones who missed the first go-round, but they're irrelevant.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
Or that's what C-SPAN's vote tally showed. But when I looked back McCarthy had 216. And the final holdout, Matt Rosendale, voted present.

Final vote (although not announced yet by the clerk):

216 - Kevin McCarthy (as I foretold)
212 - Hakeem Jeffries
6 present.

[N.E. Brigand]

216 -- Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
212 -- Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
6 -- present

For comparison, the results of the previous twelve votes for Speaker (all completed in one ballot) were:

2001
222 -- Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
205 -- Dick Gephardt (D-MO)
1 -- other
2 -- present

2003
228 -- Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
201 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
1 -- other
4 -- present

2005
226 -- Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
199 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
1 -- other
1 -- present

2007
233 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
202 -- John Boehner (R-OH)

2009
255 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
174 -- John Boehner (R-OH)

2011
241 -- John Boehner (R-OH)
173 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
18 -- seven others

2013
220 -- John Boehner (R-OH)
192 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
14 -- ten others

2015 -- January
216 -- John Boehner (R-OH)
164 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
28 -- thirteen others

2015 -- October
236 -- Paul Ryan (R-WI)
184 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
12 -- four others

2017
239 -- Paul Ryan (R-WI)
189 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
5 -- four others

2019
220 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
192 -- Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
18 -- ten others

2021
220 -- Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
209 -- Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
2 -- two others

The only time in which the House majority party's lead as tight as it is now was two years ago, and you can see that Pelosi won by a larger margin in just one ballot despite the two votes for others going to fellow Democrats.

After Kevin McCarthy took the gavel as speaker in these wee hours, he thanked Hakeem Jeffries and said: "Hakeem, I got to warn you, two years ago, I got 100% of the vote from my conference."

[Frelga]

Jeffries made a broadly acclaimed speech which included the Alphabet Aerobics of what he described as the American valued.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Asked why he reversed course on McCarthy, Gaetz said, “I ran out of things I could even imagine to ask for.”

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Proposed GOP select panel would be empowered to review ‘ongoing criminal investigations’

The name of the proposed panel is literally "Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government." Here is the actual resolution:

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20 ... -comv2.pdf

[Sunsilver]

Okay, this meme just absolutely has to be shared here!

[N.E. Brigand]

Now we know the truth:



Shades of That Hideous Strength!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Frelga]

Hakeem Jeffries, now with instrumentals.

[RoseMorninStar]

That is art.

[Eldy]

"Ether" is an inspired choice of beat for this remix.

[Frelga]

Narrator: in fact, they could and they did.

(I gather she was using a song by Dr. Dre)

Screenshot_20230109-135339.jpg (46.38 KiB) Viewed 2234 times

[RoseMorninStar]

When was that posted Frelga?

[Frelga]

Earlier today. As it turns out, she produced a video of herself sauntering about set to Dr. Dre's music. He got it taken down.

MTG Gets Locked Out of Twitter Account ... Hateful, Divisive People Can't Use My Music!!!

[N.E. Brigand]

The House passed its rules package 220-213, which means only one Republican voted against it.

[N.E. Brigand]

"The very first vote of the new House GOP majority was to defund law enforcement to help tax cheats. Amazing stuff." This move, if enacted into law (it won't be while Joe Biden is president) would add more than $100 billion to the U.S. national debt, per analysis released today by the Congressional Budget Office.

Republicans also voted to weaken the House Ethics Committee, just weeks after several Republican members of Congress were referred to that body by the January 6th Committee.

[Frelga]

Now Chip Roy is promising to stop funding to DHS. Which of course is the best way to secure the borders.