No Third House Speaker Vote, Jordan Supports Giving Temp Speaker Expanded Powers
It would start at 1:00 PM ET. I’ll cover it live in this post if it does happen.
We will not have a third vote for a House Speaker today.
Nominee Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan needs 217 Republican votes if all members are present. He could only lose four votes.
Jordan lost 20 votes in the first round and 22 votes in the second round.
Democrats won’t cross the aisle and vote for a Republican.
Centrist Democrats have come forward to support giving McHenry more power to tackle issues the government needs to address.
Jordan supports giving McHenry temporary extended powers until January 3, 2024.
#BREAKING: Jordan not holding any more votes for now in House speaker race, backs Speaker designee @PatrickMcHenry to have temporary, expanded powers until *January 3, 2024* https://t.co/XcZ51IYWM6
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 19, 2023
The House cannot function without a Speaker. The government is at a standstill without the House.
It’s amazing to witness how hard the Founders made it for the government to function. Pick apart the Constitution and you’ll find more. The Founders did this on purpose because they did not want a strong and overreaching central government.
If the House holds the vote I will cover it live in this post. It has only held one vote a day. The House did 15 rounds in a row in January before it elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy.
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Comments
Jim tapped out early. I dislike quitters
And I dislike extortionists who demand specific promises for their vote. You can only go so long before one extortionist demand rubs up against another and then you’re screwed.
He’s just waiting for the dust to settle and to let people cool off.
Nothing is going to change between now and Jan. 3, 2024. The House will be in the exact same position as they are today unless there is plenty of pork being laid out there to buy off votes. The repubs will still hold their very slim majority which could shrink by one or two more by the end of the year.
In all honesty I would not be in the least surprised if McCarthy was re-elected.
Either way, until cooler heads prevail, there isn’t going to be a speaker.
I agree that we probably won’t have a Speaker. IMO, the better COA is to let the hard heads decide if no Speaker is something they can live with politically v holding their nose and putting Jordon or someone else acceptable to the populists in place. Alternatively the populists might back down under the weight of the pressure.
As you very correctly observed the tension between the factions still exists and this ‘temp’ nonsense only postpones the resolution of that tension. If the HoR GoP majority selects a Speaker, no matter who, and that Speaker allows a ‘crisis’ to force an omnibus chock full of BS to a vote that is a problem to many of us.
Exactly, for a wrestler, he certainly lacks courage and conviction
Not the man he thought he was
At this point I think the only thing to do is fold up the tables and let the tabernacle fall. We are beyond repair with Jeffries drawing more votes, as the stink is revealing.
McCarthy had more support than Jordan
That was then. He wouldn’t now, because the two (or more) sides are too set. Same with Scalise or anybody else. It’s all about power politics and nobody will compromise.
The GOP is trusting “centrist” democrats again. Let’s if Charlie kicks the football this time.
Jordan is caving to the wished of the Dems,..he needs to go
Unfortunatelty a lot of repubicans will now likely go. They’re intentionally abandoning their base. They apparently don’t care about having a majority.
“The base” as you define it, is and has been overestimating their size and power. That should have been clear from last year’s elections, but obviously it never sunk in.
Uh, I guess I could say those who voted republican expecting republicans not to support the democrat agenda. How would you define it? Is the democrat agenda your agenda?
The populist “red wave” that was predicted last year didn’t materialize. That’s the basic definition of “overestimating”.
And yet here we are with a Republican controlled house and the minority is Democrats 😂😂
Gosh you big thinkers hey 😂😂
Uh, who cares about the results of 2022 txvet2. yeah, the republican majority isn’t as strong as some hoped but it is a majority and, to date, it has used its spending power to support rather than undermine the democrat agenda. Is this to your liking?
I have no interest in your rationalizing what was predicted to be a red wave that gave the Republicans a large working majority of 20-25 votes against the slim margin that shocked virtually everybody here.
If you mean ‘overestimated the size and power’ in terms of the members elected working to support the things they proposed and working harder in opposition to the things they said they oppose then sure.
Got plenty of establishment grifters of the don’t rock the boat, go along/get along variety from very red CD and States in the case of Senators. Somehow these sorts are always telling us we need more campaign $ and to elect more members to overcome the d/prog and the liberal to moderate GoP members. Then when we do those things the legislative priorities they ran on still don’t get adopted. Govt still expands, the debt still grows unchecked.
It isn’t the GoP base it’s the failure of the members to deliver what they promised when asking the base for votes. Ultimately it will take bitter primary contests and resolute average Citizens in the CD to overcome the advantages the incumbents enjoy; 98%+ re-election.
I mean “overestimating” as the overly optimistic predictions of Republican gains in the 2022 election. Pretty basic, no theories, no analysis. The problem is that the same people who were totally wrong on the size of Republican gains in that election are still under the delusion that the whole country agrees with them.
True though not mutually exclusive from what I argue. The fact is no GoP member of the HoR campaigned to use omnibus bills, expand govt, increase the debt. All of them made at least tepid campaign statements opposing those things.
Despite a less than stellar midterm the GoP does have a majority in the HoR and if the members actually provided support to the things they told constituents they favored and vigorously opposed the things they told constituents they don’t like things would be different.
The base is completely reasonable to expect the people that they elected to reflect their interests. That’s the entire idea behind representative government. That there are too many liars in Washington is a completely different issue.
I don’t disagree. My point is explained above. No esoteric theories or predictions.
Nazi.na would give a F, she would be elected and ram crap down our throats, much like the Republicans are doing now
Raming democrat wishes down our throats
Depressing to have no real fighters in positions of authority and even worse to know that the republican party has morphed into something ugly. What’s the point of electing these people when they ignore you and give you the finger?
What did anyone think was going to happen? Do you think the GOP members that are attacked constantly by Team Gaetz were going to vote for his guy? Gaetz & Co didn’t know when to start building bridges instead of burning them.
Not sure whose “team,” Jim Jordan was on but what is happening now would have happened under McCarthy to. CR followed by Ominbus giving Biden and dems everything and more. Kind of demoralizing but our reps just don’t care what their constutuents want. Not sure where to go from here. Seems like game is over.
They have a razor thin majority and they don’t own the Senate or the White House. They weren’t even trying to find a unity candidate to bring the party members together, they literally thought insults and threats would win the day
Who is they? The 50% who are not RINOs?
One of the problems is that a bunch of independents are trying to define who’s a RINO. Not saying you are one, but there are a lot of them here (including me, and I do the same thing).
All but 8 were RINO’s a few months ago. Who determines what’s a RIMNO? The definition seems to change all the time.
Not sure what you mean by “unity” candidate? Do mean “bi-partisan”? That’ would be insane. And :razor thin majority? Razor thin or not, it is a majority. Of the branch of government that controls the purse strings. Would democrats concede to republicans if they had the “razor thin” majority? The unpleasant reality is that the republican majority appears to advocate a policy agenda that doesn’t differ all that much if at all from the democrats. And so they’re pushing that forward. Base be damned.
McCarthy was a “unity” candidate. Jordan, if he won the speakership, would be a “unity” candidate, because there is literally no room in a closely divided House for intra-party partisanship. Until the entire membership bows to that reality, there isn’t going to be a speaker at all.
How much friggning intra-party partisanship do you have that favors the egregious the Biden and democrat agenda? Sounds like a party as a whole that supports an agenda I frankly oppose and thought I was voting against by electing a republican.
Of course I was speaking of the election of a speaker and nothing further. Whoever is elected has to represent the entire caucus, not a few malcontents, because it requires virtually a unanimous vote of the party. I’m sorry that’s too difficult for you to grasp.
Who are the malcontents? The ones throwing tantrums behind closed doors raising asinine slanders against Jordan?
Yes. Also the ones who staged the first coup in history against the elected speaker.
Put on your big boy pants and get over it. Filing a motion allowed by House rules isn’t a coup anymore than an unruly demonstration is an insurrection. And the issue isn’t the removal of McCarthy. It’s the election of a new speaker. As someone once said, I’m sorry that’s too difficult for you to grasp.
The problem is there is not a unity candidate who can unite Republicans and RINOs.
Hard to build bridges to people that lie to you.
McHenry is a worthless RINO. The sooner he is done, the better.
I second that.
Hate to break it to you but the Republican Party majority has become the RINO party. They fund all democrat policy items, including immigration and foreign policy. And they love the lawfare, for which they’re indifferent as to constitutional implications but they just love it a weapon against opponents. I would say it’s time to explore to form new party but such efforts are historically doomed to failure. So I’m frankly out of ideas.
So does this mean impeachment inquiry and all the other committee work is shut down?
I don’t think they ever really started a serious inquiry..
Yes
Mental powers would be nice, if they’re choosing.
It took 15 votes before McCarthy won the speakership these people want to throw in the towel after just two rounds. No wonder the repubs have earned the mantra of quitters by many.
Jordan isn’t going anywhere. He’s just trying to let things cool off. Of course, he’s also effectively ducking the necessity to do something to fund the government, thereby ending up in the same predicament as McCarthy. It’s shrewd to let an “interim” speaker take the heat, and then try again in January, but everybody is going to hate the result if they let Dems help write a CR and/or omnibus spending bill.
Who says we need to fund it. If the communists don’t want to play ball, let it all go to hell. I could give a shit anymore and if it’s a choice between telling that pedophile in the white house to go f*ck himself or giving that pedophile what he wants, tell him to f*ck himself.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but I doubt that there is a member of the House that agrees with you.
“Pedophile?” LOL. You’re nuts.
Since we traded one RINO for another what was the point?
Mr. Jordan isn’t quitting. He is recognizing that he is, for this position at this time, unelectable. There is a difference.
I won’t opine on who might be the best Speaker, and I won’t opine on the clear mistrust between the different wings of the Pub caucus. I will remind the caucus members that they have some obligation to support their brethren — otherwise, why belong to the party?
Mr. Gaetz and company might as well set up a new party (“splinter! splinter!”) and seek to generate a formal coalition, much as parties in Europe do when they need to band together to get past a vote of confidence in the national parliament. That of course runs the risk that the larger party will indeed form a coalition — with someone else. But that’s the risk you take.
If I were a House Pub and in a position to run for Speaker, and I’d just won the internal caucus vote and was due a vote in the full House tomorrow, I’d look my entire caucus in the eye and say, “There are 220 of you, plus me. Tell me right now if I’m going to come in under 218 in the vote tomorrow; because if that’s the case, I won’t bother going forward. Go get someone else.” And I’d mean it.
Parties exist to win elections. If you can’t hang together to do that, then disband the party.
It would be nice to pick someone not too RINO-ish sooner rather than later, since Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) is now second in presidential succession.
The HORROR!
I have no interest at all in giving more power to an “interim” speaker, if it means giving any power at all to the Democrats. That’s what’s killing us in Texas – a Speaker who was elected and controls the lege with the help of Democrats.
And if that happens, McCarthy hunters like Gaetz are to blame.
McCarthy would be to blame, he’s the traitor that stabbed his conference in the back.
Nope. McCarthy gave them grenade (motion to vacate) as a condition of his selection as Speaker. The real issue is McCarthy and the other establishment types didn’t think the populists had the stones to pull the pin. They thought even in the unlikely event a motion to vacate is brought the d/prog won’t align to help a populist remove the Speaker b/c that would the d/prog were ‘helping’ the populists who the d/prog despise.
The mistaken judgement rests with McCarthy and the other establishment types who believed that there wasn’t going to be any consequences for failing to follow regular order on budgets and for failing to follow their pledge not to use d/prog goes to pass any legislation. They made a commitment that locked them into the GoP caucus providing the needed votes to get a budget. Without a budget acceptable to the populist bloc they can’t do that. That’s the issue here, the abandonment of their commitment by the establishment.
So the populists “had the stones,” and look what’s going to happen. This would be called a classic Pyrrhic Victory. Jesus H. Christ, did they learn nothing in childhood? Maybe they didn’t get spanked enough.
Yes indeed RC Look upon the result and despair….b/c why exactly?The govt is funded till mid Nov. The committees can all function. Plenty of existing authority to move munitions and other aid to Israel. Where’s the crisis? Not a ginned up PERCEPTION of a crisis but an actual crisis we must have a Speaker to resolve?
McCarthy and the other establishment goons tried the same play as always ‘hey guys, this is a emergency about the budget! We gotta all vote for X no matter what.’ The problem is McCarthy promised:
1. Regular order for appropriations
2. No bills to the floor that can’t be passed with purely GoP votes.
In trying to run the same old play McCarthy and the establishment goons sought to invalidate those promises. This time though they handed a grenade to the folks who were ‘distrustful’ of McCarthy’s commitments in Jan in return for their support. Turns out they were correct to be distrustful.
Worse yet these same folks begged McCarthy and the establishment goons not to break their pledge and try this ‘Emergency Omnibus’ BS. The establishment didn’t listen so the folks detonated the grenade. Tough cookies. More so b/c the same d/prog McCarthy wanted to work with instead of his own caucus provided the votes, 209 of them to remove him as Speaker.
Lets not overlook that key point when claiming ‘GoP dysfunction. 8 members of the GoP voted for the motion to vacate along with 209 d/prog in the HoR. Maybe apply some promotional liability if you make claims about which party did what, just for fairness and accuracy if nothing else.
Chief: Sorry, can’t let you get away with that, because we’ve been over this ground before. It was a foregone conclusion that the Dems would vote as a bloc against any Republican speaker. It’s baked into their DNA. The impetus was provided by Gaetz, and his gang provided the margin of defeat (or victory, depending on your POV). It was intentional, it was planned from January, at least by Gaetz, and so was using the CR (which clearly should have been expected – the Republican committees haven’t fulfilled their obligation to produce appropriations bills in decades) as the excuse. If they didn’t anticipate a negative reaction from some of the McCarthy/Scalise supporters, that’s on them. I still think that when things cool off, that Jordan will be elected, but once again, he’s facing an impossible task of reconciling two unreconcilable factions in his own caucus. If the left one doesn’t get him, the right one will.
BOTH parties vote en banc against the other party’s speaker. If you somehow think the Rs are any different in that regard, please tell us where you get your mushrooms so I can see in colors too.
If the Rs can’t control themselves because they wah-wah-want everything, they will lose next year. I won’t like it, but it will be their fault. Maybe the Republican Party needs to die, huh? If so, I hope you are ready for the consequences of their utter stupidity.
txvet2,
If it was a foregone conclusion that the d/prog would vote as united bloc to support a motion to vacate then McCarthy badly miscalculated the ability of the establishment goons to break their commitments with impunity. Which is exactly what I argued in the post. You are buttressing my argument not opposing it.
RC,
‘Everything’? Nah, the populists just wanted their leadership to maintain their commitment to regular order and not to rely on d/prog votes for passing bills in the HoR. The commitments they voluntarily made to get votes for the leadership posts. Not for nothing but those were the same commitments they made when campaigning for election to the HoR.
Interesting you don’t mention the entire Democrat caucus, that voted to remove McCarthy after he was dumb enough to trust them.
McCarthy himself is to blame. He decided to trust Democrats to keep him as Speaker, instead of living up to his agreement with conservatives.
When was the last time either party voted for the other party’s speaker. Don’t blame this on the Democrats, crybaby. This is 100% on the Rs.
Yes for demanding he play by the rules he was elected by?
Take your ball and go home
Like Jordan
And…the world continues to turn, and the country continues to move forward. To what, is anyone’s guess.
Let me sum it up fort everyone: they are now creating a continuing resolution for House Speakership. So disgusting and very Congress.
Well, I guess that’s one way for them avoid accountability, which is the only thing the entire Congress can seem to agree on. They want the pay, they want the benefits but they don’t want to do the work or be held accountable for the outcome.
Don’t forget the grift, they certainly want the grift.
Well, I hope the nutcases are happy. They had a talented legislator in McCarthy, and rock-solid conservatives in Scalise and Jordan. But no, it wasn’t enough. So now it’ll be McHenry, who’ll be speaker at the sufferance of the Democrats.
Anyone who remembers what happened to them in grade school or at home when they misbehaved will recognize the outcome. Congrats, dear wingnuts. You wouldn’t have gotten everything you wanted, but you would have gotten enough.
Now you will end up with perhaps the worst outcome. I don’t like it, but a part of my does have to laugh. If you keep f-ing off, you eventually pay the price.
Real talented, so talented one might think he was a Democrat
I have had it with Jim Jordan, the Conservative Caucus, and all of his Trump supporters. Screw you.
My Congresswoman is Marionette Miller-Meeks. She is now receiving credible death threats from Jordan supporters and Trump supporters because she didn’t vote for Jordan to be Speaker of the House.
At the age of 18 Miller-Meeks enlisted in the U.S Army and served for 24 years, including as a nurse, physician, and member of the United States Army Reserve. She retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Miller-Meeks is a first-generation college student, She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Texas Christian University, a Master of Science in education from the University of Southern California, and a Doctor of Medicine from University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
She is a solid conservative in a purple part of my state.
So screw all of you Jordan and Trump supporters.
Funny, we’ve had it with you and your liberal nonsense, too. You’ve been around these boards long enough for everybody to see that you ALWAYS spew the liberal party line, whine about actual conservatives and Trump supporters, and always believe whatever drivel the liberals happen to be spewing.
‘Credible death threats’?
Oh just screw off with that nonsense.
Publish the alleged ‘death threats’, or they’re just liars, like they always are.
An actual, CREDIBLE, death threat against a member of Congress is a crime.
If it hasn’t been reported to the police and FBI, then she’s a liar.
Funny how every one of the RINOs suddenly started whining about ‘intimidation and harassment’ at exactly the same time. And when that didn’t get them any sympathy, magically the ‘death threats’ started.
Almost like they coordinated their message.
And her military service has what to do with anything? I’m a veteran too. It’s not a magical shield from criticism.
McCain was a military veteran too, and he was a complete scumbag. Kizinger is veteran, and he’s also a scumbag.
She has a horrific voting record, and now she’s terrified that she’s pissed off the base and the propaganda isn’t working, so she’s frantically trying to deflect.
Amen
Enjoy Joe Biden then.
He’s president for the next 15 months.
It’s a good day for a meltdown, JR. Nicely done.
She voted for Kay Granger as the new speaker, the only one out of 433 votes cast to do so.
“She is a solid conservative in a purple part of my state.”
A solid conservative Democrat maybe.
She’s not even a GOPe Republican, or a neocon. The woman is a Democrat.
We can’t even be sure who’s a Republican and who’s a RINO, yet our government assures us they know the difference between a killer Hamas and a peaceful Palestinian because they wear nametags or something.
Oh, and Jordan just announced that no, they AREN’T going to vote on giving McHenry powers, he still plans to continue running for Speaker, and there will be another vote tonight.
Guess her heard from the posse
“Giving Temp Speaker Expanded Powers”
How about no. Let’s do this in accordance with the constitution and normal rules of the House.
Vote ’till ya puke up a Speaker.
That’s why they’re trying to pull the bait-and-switch with McHenry.
What they ACTUALLY mean is ‘we’re going to make him the pretend Speaker that can do everything the Speaker did, but since he’s not the real Speaker, then you can’t make a motion to vacate the chair’.
To McHenry’s credit, he rejected the idea of expanded powers on the grounds that it would pave the way for long-term abandonment of the speakership by both parties. You either make me speaker or I’ll resign the pro-tem position, he told them. At least someone has any common sense.
One way or another, the House is going to have a speaker. The longer the Rs dilly-dally, the more it plays into the hands of the Democratic/media consortium by making the Rs look like the spoiled, disorganized band of children they are.
Oh, and the idea that this will somehow “reduce the size of government” is complete horseshit.
I couldn’t have come up with a better plan to empower the Ds and their media auxiliaries if I tried. Really, if I didn’t know better (or think I do), I’d swear the wingnuts are secretly on the Democratic payroll.
So you have what, a 5 or 6-vote margin in the chamber. Don’t ya just kinda sorta think it just might have been in the Rs’ best interests to do everything possible to hang together? You know, Ben Franklin’s words at a different time?
The utter stupidity of this internal revolt is just mind boggling. I realize that it’s Congress, which is always something of a playground, but I never thought that the Rs would wind up having a collective age of 5. Oh well, learn something new every day.
It’s the natural tension between an ascending bloc and a declining bloc squabbling over who holds the levers of power. There’s more than a little bad blood and Jan Speaker contest was a foretaste. IMO, it is best to let it play out and get to an eventual resolution. Doing otherwise only delays the clash b/c this has been brewing for some time, Left unresolved it will fester.
Nothing I can do except sit back and be just amazed by the idiocy. I can understand dissatifaction within the ranks, but to have it play out with a paper-thin margin? And it’s not as if either Scalise or Jordan are anything other than conservative to begin with. Who do the “insurgents” even want? What do they want?
All I can see is a band of crybabies who are threatening to burn the joint down, figuratively speaking. With such a narrow margin, common sense says you sublimate your differences. I don’t have any admiration for what the Ds have become, to put it mildly, but not even they are this stupid.
If there’s anything working in the Rs’ favor here, and only slightly, it’s that there are big pots boiling on the front of the stove, and that the general public generally had little appetite for this insider baseball shit. Relative lack of attention might give them breathing room, but I doubt that’s going to last for very long.
RC,
I agree with much of your post, particularly the second paragraph where you state ‘With such narrow margins, common sense says you sublimate your differences.’
That’s what the contentious and extended Speaker selection contest in Jan was for and very importantly what it achieved. The two key points here are:
1. Regular order for appropriations and no omnibus BS stuffed full of who knows what
2. Require all bills to have enough GoP support to pass without any d/prog votes in the HoR
Taken together that means any appropriations bill must have 218/217 GoP members willing to vote for it. Unfortunately, instead of meeting the concerns of the GoP caucus leadership decided to focus their efforts on compromise with the WH, the Senate and d/prog in the HoR.
Now I might agree with you had leadership brought appropriation bills that 218/217 GoP members supported to passage and THEN used that as the initial benchmark for further negotiations outside the HoR GoP caucus. Unfortunately that’s not what happened.
I truly believe the tension between the ascending populist bloc and the defending establishment bloc needs to be worked through ASAP. It isn’t going away and will continue to surface. Do it and get most of it over with, lance the boil instead of letting it fester. It will resurface after the seating of the next Congress and different proportions of each bloc are elected or reelected but at least everyone will know exactly where they stand and what the limits are for gaining/losing support of the opposing blocs.
Oh great. So now since they lack the ability to get their crap together, they want to do a Continuing Resolution for the speaker vote. For the love of Pete!
This is the reason I say fire all of them and start over.
The GOPe and never trumpers so want this to be Gaetz ‘siding’ with the Democrats.
But it wasn’t.
It was Gaetz knowing exactly what would happen based on observing the actions of the players.
Gaetz KNEW McCarthy believed that Dem votes would save him, which is why he told Gaetz to ‘bring it’.
Gaetz KNEW the leftist fever swamp would not be able to bring themselves to NOT be a part of taking down the Republican speaker.
Gaetz KNEW that the unipartyists trusted the Dems so much that there would be no serious effort made to stop him.
So he went ahead.
If he’d been wrong –about any point of this– his effort would fail.
He wasn’t wrong.
Now, the GOPe, the nevertrumpers, and the unipartyists are throwing the biggest tantrum they can– because they were out maneuvered.
By someone who has shown them that he understands them better than they do themselves.
If you play chess you have to be asking why he made this move, at this time. He sees something. What is it?