1-4-23 – 3 More Votes – Still No Speaker

Yesterday, the fiasco in the House of Representatives continued. Three additional votes for the Speaker of the House were held, and again no one achieved a majority vote.

	McCarthy	Jefferies	Donald	Present
Roll Call #5	201	212	20	1
Roll Call #6	201	212	20	1
Roll Call #7	201	212	20	1

Yesterday, Member-elect Donald (R,FL) was the stand-in candidate for the twenty rebellious Republicans instead of Biggs and Jordan from Tuesday. This name-changing of candidates from the rR’s continues to show that this is not a serious attempt to substitute a candidate that has an actual chance at winning the post. What is not yet clear, however, is if the rR’s want to stop McCarthy from being Speaker, or just want to ensure their power in the 118^th Congress.

If McCarthy ultimately becomes Speaker by making further concessions to the rR’s, they will have the ability to influence the content of every piece of legislation that comes to the floor of the House. And they have made it clear that they have no desire to compromise their principles to craft legislation that could be passed in the Senate or signed by the President.

Representative-elect Jordan made this clear in his floor speech (pg H5) on Tuesday:

“So we need to pass legislation that address all that [border, spending, ‘woke’ military, ‘weaponized’ government, government debt, etc]. And I hope my Democratic colleagues will join me, I really do. But I have my doubts; and if they don’t, and if CHUCK SCHUMER says no, we are not going to take up that legislation that we pass, and if Joe Biden won’t sign it, so be it. They will have to answer to the people in 2024.”

The interesting possibility that is beginning to be seriously discussed is McCarthy {or some fantasy candidate; the name of retired-Representative Upton (R,MI) has been frequently mentioned} working with the Democratic leadership to elect a Speaker. The deal that would allow that (probably by having enough Democrats vote ‘Present’ to allow an election by less than 218 votes) would cancel out the power of the rR’s and make the road clear for a more middle-of-the-road 118^th that could possibly pass significant legislation. It would also cause the rR’s to go all out in a campaign of legislative obstruction and delay for the next two years and to mount serious primary challenges against the entire Republican leadership in 2024.