Jim Jordan Fails 3 Times in House Speaker Bid, Nomination Ended

Apparently "Three strikes and you're out!" is the rule in Congress this week. After Representative Jim Jordan failed three rounds of votes to become Speaker of the House, the Republican conference voted in a secret ballot to end his nomination. In the public rounds of voting, 20 Republicans voted against Jordan Tuesday, 22 on Wednesday, and 25 in a vote earlier today. Obviously his candidacy wasn't gaining any traction... despite— or more likely because of— the Trump-style intimidation and threats he and some of supporters attempted.

The ending of Jordan's nomination keeps Congress in a state of chaos... and paralysis. As I've noted before, the House of Representatives is literally not able to do anything without an elected Speaker... except vote to elect a Speaker. Meanwhile various national and international crises are growing. The clock is still ticking down on budget reauthorization for the federal government, there's currently no more financial support approved for Ukraine's defense against Russia's invasion, and there's now a war in Israel that Congress hasn't even been able to take a symbolic vote of support on.

"We're in a very bad place right now," former speaker Kevin McCarthy said to journalists. McCarthy, the first speaker ever to lose the gavel on what was essentially a no-confidence vote two weeks ago, showed breathtaking un-self-awareness— a hallmark of modern Republican politics— as just earlier this year he and his supporters held the house hostage for a record 15 rounds of voting before winning the speakership. McCarthy also made numerous substantive concessions to win after 15 ballots, including the one on the "Motion to Vacate" that led to 5 Republican hardliners being able to oust him from his leadership role a little over two weeks ago.

Congress now enters its third week in chaos and paralyzed.

Jury Duty: Just Do It

Hawk got a summons for jury duty this past week. Her duty is in mid November. "I need to get a postponement," she said right away. "If I get seated on a jury that week it'll run afoul of our Thanksgiving travel plans the next week."

Don't ask for a postponement, I recommended. Here are Five Things why:

1) The courts have gotten tougher on granting postponements for work and travel reasons. You get one free request; after that you have to show genuine hardship to the judge to get another postponement. If you use your free delay just because the timing might be bad, the next one could be worse— and you'll face a skeptical judge.

2) It's entirely possible you're done after one day in court. You'll be on call starting on a Monday, though it seems courts never start jury selection on Mondays. Tuesday you might be called in. There's often a pool of around 100 potential jurors for a jury of 12. They might impanel the full jury without even interviewing you for voir dire... in which case your service requirement is complete. and you go home.

3) It's actually possible the court may be in recess the whole week of Thanksgiving, or that the days in that short week may be reserved for pretrial motions with testimony only beginning after Thanksgiving. In that case there's no travel conflict.

4) In voir dire you could be disqualified from serving for some reason other than schedule availability. At that point your jury duty is complete.

5) Finally, if the trial is going to run during your travel week, and they do interview you for the jury, then you can use booked travel as your on free postponement. The judge will give you a new date and won't be as tolerant of excuses a second time.