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canyonwalkerIt has now been 3 weeks since Rep. Matt Gaetz made a "Motion to Vacate" Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy from office. With help from a small band of hardliner Republicans, Gaetz's motion passed. With no Speaker, the House was plunged into chaos, unable by its rules to work on any official business except holding votes to elect a new speaker. As that chaos now enters its 4th week we are... apparently not any closer to getting a new speaker.
News today was that the Republican conference chose Tom Emmer, its party whip and thus its #3 leader in the House, to be its nominee and go to a full vote on the floor. Accounts of this secret nomination meeting say it was raucous. Representatives shouted at each other, they traded f-bombs, one openly threatened physical violence on another, and that person's target begged him to come over and try it. Yes, these people carrying on like adolescent schoolyard bullies are our elected leaders. And at the end of the day, after putting forth Emmer as the nominee, he... withdrew.
Emmer withdrew because Donald Trump worked behind the scenes to torpedo his nomination. "He's done," Trump bragged to an ally. "It's over. I killed him."
This shows, BTW, that Trump is very much calling the shots in leading the Republican party. Ironically Trump's boast about killing Emmer came after his spokespeople insisted to the news media today that he has no opinion on this matter and is not at all getting involved.
And Emmer's trouble with Trump? He wasn't sufficiently loyal. Apparently 10 years ago he supported something Trump doesn't like today because it would hurt his chances of winning an election today.
Emmer was no Trump hater, though, even though Trump derided him as a "Never Trumper" in social media. Emmer, in fact, was one of the 120+ sitting Congresspeople to vote to reject the results of the Electoral College on January 6. At least unlike the previous Speaker nominee, Jim Jordan, Emmer didn't participate in plotting the attempts to overturn the will of the people on January 6.
Also, unlike Jordan, Emmer had the good sense to withdraw when he saw he wasn't going to get enough votes. Jordan failed 3 times and kept pushing until his nomination was terminated by the conference over members' objections to his strong-arm tactics— which included his political supporters making credible violent threats against fellow Republican representatives and their families.
It's interesting (and by "interesting" I mean sad) that a pattern is emerging among Speaker nominees. We have the reasonable people vs. the unreasonable ones ...Actually they're all unreasonable ones, having voted on January 6 to overturn the will of the people. So really it's the extremists-who-can-be-reasoned-with-a-little versus the complete braying jackasses. The slightly-reasonable extremists like Scalise (another recent nominee who withdrew) and Emmer can at least see the reality of what's coming and step aside before being embarrassed. The braying jackasses like Jordan will stand there loudly hee-hawing until dragged away. Sadly that means the braying jackasses are running the show.
News today was that the Republican conference chose Tom Emmer, its party whip and thus its #3 leader in the House, to be its nominee and go to a full vote on the floor. Accounts of this secret nomination meeting say it was raucous. Representatives shouted at each other, they traded f-bombs, one openly threatened physical violence on another, and that person's target begged him to come over and try it. Yes, these people carrying on like adolescent schoolyard bullies are our elected leaders. And at the end of the day, after putting forth Emmer as the nominee, he... withdrew.
Emmer withdrew because Donald Trump worked behind the scenes to torpedo his nomination. "He's done," Trump bragged to an ally. "It's over. I killed him."
This shows, BTW, that Trump is very much calling the shots in leading the Republican party. Ironically Trump's boast about killing Emmer came after his spokespeople insisted to the news media today that he has no opinion on this matter and is not at all getting involved.
And Emmer's trouble with Trump? He wasn't sufficiently loyal. Apparently 10 years ago he supported something Trump doesn't like today because it would hurt his chances of winning an election today.
Emmer was no Trump hater, though, even though Trump derided him as a "Never Trumper" in social media. Emmer, in fact, was one of the 120+ sitting Congresspeople to vote to reject the results of the Electoral College on January 6. At least unlike the previous Speaker nominee, Jim Jordan, Emmer didn't participate in plotting the attempts to overturn the will of the people on January 6.
Also, unlike Jordan, Emmer had the good sense to withdraw when he saw he wasn't going to get enough votes. Jordan failed 3 times and kept pushing until his nomination was terminated by the conference over members' objections to his strong-arm tactics— which included his political supporters making credible violent threats against fellow Republican representatives and their families.
It's interesting (and by "interesting" I mean sad) that a pattern is emerging among Speaker nominees. We have the reasonable people vs. the unreasonable ones ...Actually they're all unreasonable ones, having voted on January 6 to overturn the will of the people. So really it's the extremists-who-can-be-reasoned-with-a-little versus the complete braying jackasses. The slightly-reasonable extremists like Scalise (another recent nominee who withdrew) and Emmer can at least see the reality of what's coming and step aside before being embarrassed. The braying jackasses like Jordan will stand there loudly hee-hawing until dragged away. Sadly that means the braying jackasses are running the show.
