House Republicans have now officially nominated Gym Jordan to be speaker. He defeated Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, about whom I know nothing, by a vote of 124 to 81. That’s somewhat better than Steve Scalise did against Jordan earlier this week, which was 113 to 99. The magic number to get the gavel is, of course, 217, and no one is saying Jordan’s going to get 217. Several mainstream Republicans have said they would not support him, the NY Times reports.
Four Dems of the House “problem solvers” caucus, led by the odious Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, are floating a proposal to give temporary speaker McHenry “expanded authorities” that would allow some bills to be voted on.
Specifically, the Democrats are proposing to let McHenry bring up any emergency aid for Ukraine or Israel, a short-term bill that extends government funding through Jan. 11, or general consideration of fiscal 2024 spending bills. Those powers should be limited to 15-day increments, they proposed, with extensions possible if the House GOP continues to remain without a leader.
In exchange, the Democratic quartet suggested, their party would be allowed to fill up 50 percent of the House’s suspension calendar — which is reserved for noncontroversial bills and requires two-thirds votes for passage, not simple majorities.
Better than nothing, I guess.
The polls in Israel show that a huge majority of Israelis blame Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government for the Hamas attacks. A smaller majority, 56 percent, think Netanyahu must resign.
Of all the stupid and senseless killings of black men by police, none were more stupid and senseless than the killing of Elijah McClain, 23, in Colorado. Yesterday a jury found one of the police officers involved in the death guilty of criminally negligent homicide and assault. Another officer was acquitted. A third officer and two paramedics who treated McClain with a probable overdose of ketamine have yet to be tried. It doesn’t seem quite enough to me.
After Jordan beat an unknown House rival, Jodan asked who would support him in a secret ballot
"Jordan then called a second vote asking members if they would support him on the floor, in an effort to see if that could shrink his opposition. That vote, which was cast by secret ballot, was 152-55 – laying bare the long road ahead for Jordan’s speakership bid to succeed."
So Jordan has to win over fifty Republicans. It looks to me like most of those fifty prefer anybody to Jordan. It looks like Jordan has TWICE the opposition that Scalise did. I do not think Jordan will withdraw his name from consideration for anyone except Trump. (Trump will get even LESS support than Jordan, so that won't happen.)
The Democrats are signaling they will save the GOP from this mess, but not to put in any of the bomb-throwers. If nothing happens, in a month, the government shuts down when the CR expires.
Bibi is getting the blame, and he deserves it. But I think the same dynamic will hold in elections in the US in a year. The GOP is producing chaos in great volume, and little else. If the GOP can't put political points on the board – actual policy wins – Democrats may do well in 2025.
The joker in the deck is the USSC who will have to rule on whether Trump is disqualified to serve as POTUS under the 14th Amendment.
On the Elijah McClain murder – yes, murder: m-u-r-d-e-r – there are cops who like to prey on weaker people. The weaker the individual, the greater the blood lust.
In between corporate gigs, I was a bartender in NYC and Upstate NY, and cops were some of the worst a-holes who came in* – and not ALL of them, of course. Too often, they were looking for the slightest provocation to start a fight. But rare!y did they want to start something if the guy was the same size and build, or larger.
That kid clearly did not deserve his fate – to die at the hand of cops who were clearly nowhere near the caliber of human Elijah was.
Everyone involved in his murder should get a very long sentence.
*Btw: Firefighters were the BEST customers! Almost never any problems.
EMS techs were a close second.
You may be surprised, but cops weren't the worst. They were many, many notches below the top two. But the worst, the very worst, were COs (Corrections Officers). Total a-holes, almost to a man (I never met a female CO). And talk about loving to prey on weaker people! No matter how big, how strong the prisoner, that prisoner is always at the mercy of a CO. And if one CO's not enough to handle that prisoner, the other COs are always chomping at the bit to join in on a good beating – "to teach the prisoner who's boss." It bears repeating: Total a-holes!
Now mind you, this opinion on a-holes is the opinion of a fellow a-hole: Me!
I think I would've had more fun, and learned quite a bit about life had I learned to bartend. Your comments about COs reminded me of the sadism I saw in The Shawshank Redemption. Apart from the speaking parts, the extras they used in the prison scenes were actual COs.
Regarding your last sentence – you gotta be kidding me. "No data to support this claim".
What they did to Elijah McClain was heartbreaking, but its soul-killing to see the courts let them get away with it. The cop they convicted won't do any time commensurate with the crime committed, and it surely was murder. I expected them to get away with it because usually they do. And McClain is just one of many. That’s “the system.”
But the lack of tolerance when the people involved with the cops are black is just so obvious. Sure, I've seen cops abuse white folk, damn near as bad as they have blacks. And that's not necessarily because of race, as much as it is they're just a-holes. But its as if they look for the slightest provocation to pull out a gun and kill a black person, for things white folk are allowed to walk away from. Black woman is suspected of shoplifting, gets in her car and tries to drive away. Cop, "in fear for his life" shoots through the window and kills her. Yet I've seen cases where the white suspects drive away hitting cops and other cars and they go out of their way to make sure they are unharmed. "They're just having a bad day." I saw a clip of a woman going into a police station with a gun, shooting up the station, and she lived to tell. Black folk go into police stations unarmed, and in custody, and don't live to tell, and relatively nothing is done.
Rather than try to at least acknowledge that, after 400 years of racial conditioning, racism has become innate. After all that it shouldn't be surprising when anyone no matter their "race" sees others through a racial lens. Recall when Jesse Jackson said years ago that, when he is out at night alone and hears footsteps behind him, he hopes its not a black person. More training" isn't going to fix that. It has to start with an acknowledgement of the truth. Instead, "we" start banning history books.
Sorry to go on a rant but given the person he was, Elijah McClain case breaks my heart. And its broken anew seeing his killers get away with it.
I hope Gym Jordan falls short. Few people in Congress I despise more.
Giving McHenry more powers – a move backed by both Dems and Rs – is the start of bipartisanship, and is probably the first step out of the checkmate situation the Rs find themselves in. There is no more legislative candy (committee chairs, etc) to bribe people with, all the goodies were handed out by Kevin as he fought his way through 15 ballots, and so it's unlikely the chess pieces will move to any great extent.
Bibi's court overhaul – from Dec 2022 – caused massive unrest, and seriously weakened him – and I wonder what triggered Hamas to act.
I think if they impose a rule where the speaker has to wear a jacket, then maybe Gym will bail out of contention.
Few people in Congress I despise more. Amen!
I'd be a little leery electing a former wrestling coach as speaker of the house.
I wrestled in high school (I sucked but it was fun, intense exercise, made some friends), my coach who also taught drafting was a great guy both as coach and teacher. We did have an assistant coach who a real asshole, mean, abusive, a real bully. He went on to become the head coach years after I was gone and was eventually fired for abusing students and drinking on the job! So my experience with wrestling coaches is 50/50, far better than my experience with Republicans!
What a folly. You mean the Jim Jordon from Ohio? He is seriously rejected by a large minority of republicans and a large majority of the House of Representatives. That is not even close to a pragmatic solution. His main appeal is to the flat earth society.
The flat earth society does not represent the middle, it represents the wacko extreme. Once again, the republican party shows incompetence. I remember when it was a grand old party and almost any republican would do. Now on has to wonder if any republican is a minimally competent politician.
Read that the Constitution says "the House shall choose a speaker" – which could mean the effort to give McHenry speaker-like powers will be a tough sell.
The pundits have been wrong on the Speaker mess all along. So I take what I read with reservations. I forget where I read speculation that Jordan will call for a vote Monday. Unlike the previous votes, this will be a called vote on the floor – Jordan will know who opposes his bid for the Speaker's chair. Again, speculation, but some say it would be true to form for Jordan to move to intimidation tactics against his "enemies."
I'm not sure if that's a step up or a step down from McCarthy promising anyone anything they wanted to hear – and then going back on that promise when it conflicted with an opposing commitment. (You can lie to everyone but the bill comes due when you've promised one person you will do exactly what you promised a different person you would NOT.) Jordan won't promise to moderate his extremism, I suspect.
The question is whether there are six Republicans in the House with the spine to stand up to Jordan and MAGA threats. That's if Jordan is the snake I think he is and this plays out in a Trumpian way.
If the Rs can't settle on a speaker via secret ballot, then intimidation tactics are the next step. If that fails, then negotiating with the enemy (Democrats) gets one step closer. Here's hoping there's enough Rs (in districts Biden won) who won't be bullied.