“Let’s be clear,” said Representative Thomas Massie (R‑Ky.) yesterday, speaking of the difficulty Republicans in the House of Representatives have in finding a new Speaker, “January was a coronation, and it was difficult; this is a competition, and it’s going to be even more difficult.”
Asked about the Steve Scalise (R‑La.) candidacy, Rep. Massie replied that at least 20 Republicans would never vote for Scalise as Speaker.
Wednesday, Scalise expressed his honor to have been nominated for the position. Thursday he withdrew his nomination. “There are still some people that have their own agendas. And I was very clear we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs.”
This begs the question. What does the country need? Bad-mouthing the dozen or so who would not support his compromising techniques as pushing “their own agenda” is a rhetorical move, but it is by no means demonstrated.
Massie made the point that the recently ousted Speaker (whose ouster he did not support) had negotiated a significant concession from the Biden Administration — a one percent reduction in spending for a debt limit increase — and that no candidate for Speaker who would not press this advantage further could be accepted.
The collapse of the Scalise campaign leaves only Rep. Jim Jordan (R‑Oh.) in the offing. A far better option. As of this writing, on Thursday night, no one else has thrown a hat into the ring.
It’s a pretty contentious ring, with elbows getting thrown by the Republican Freedom Caucus types leveraging the power they have. The establishment GOP is reeling.
Which is not always a good thing.
And Democrats? Appalled.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing. With a $33 trillion debt and growing fast, should everyone blithely march towards oblivion, meekly following the leader in Washington’s favorite version of Kick the Can?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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5 replies on “Leverage & Resistance”
Globally, legislatures are often controlled by coälitions of parties. In living memory, at any given time, each the two chambers of Congress has been controlled by just one major party. But let us not forget that each of these parties (and any party of meaningful size) is itself a coälition.
What has happened is that the Republican Party has come increasingly to resemble a coälition of two parties.
So the behavior of the House of Representatives now looks more like that of a parliamentary chamber in which neither of the two parties with the most seats has a majority. One of those parties hates and is hated by the remaining members, but those remaining members are not longer willing to go along with the other big party as it goes along with their enemies.
Paul:
You misuse “begging the question” here. As you know. A pet peeve of mine and probably of many of your readers.
You had me for a minute at the beginning. Then you went in for the wrestling coach. How could he not have known that students were being molested by the doctor they used or whatever the hell was going on? But on a related topic, are you for the people in Washington who go there and think they’re not going to compromise? That means you’re for the people who never get to Washington. Right. You might want to look at that.
Yes. Jim Jordan for “molester in charge”.
To be much concerned about Jordan’s possible involvement in Strauss’s gross misconduct, I’d have to see far more than hand-waving claims that Jordan “must have known” about that abuse. As hated as Jordan is by powerful people, I’d expect rather more substance if the charges had it. At this point, I’ve never even seen an attempted explanation of why he must have know.