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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowRepublicans on Tuesday picked Rep. Tom Emmer as their nominee for House speaker. The nominee now goes to the full House for a vote.
It’s three weeks since Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy. A new House speaker will need to accomplish the seemingly impossible job of uniting the GOP majority. Emmer of Minnesota jumped ahead as the top vote-getter on early-round ballots and was battling Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana on a fifth ballot.
Others are dropping out including Florida newcomer Byron Donalds, who’s aligned with Donald Trump, and Kevin Hern of Oklahoma. The nominee will also need to win a majority in a House floor vote.
Also withdrawing from the race were Reps. Austin Scott of Georgia, Jack Bergman of Michigan, Pete Sessions of Texas, Gary Palmer of Alabama and Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania.
The House has been without a speaker since the start of the month after a contingent of hard-line Republicans ousted McCarthy, creating what’s now a governing crisis that’s preventing the normal operations of Congress.
The federal government risks a shutdown in a matter of weeks if Congress fails to pass funding legislation by a Nov. 17 deadline to keep services and offices running. More immediately, President Joe Biden has asked Congress to provide $105 billion in aid—to help Israel and Ukraine amid their wars and to shore up the U.S. border with Mexico. Federal aviation and farming programs face expiration without action.
Some Democrats have eyed Emmer, the third-ranking House GOP leader who had voted to certify the 2020 election results as a potential partner in governing the House.
But Trump allies and other hard-liners have been critical of Emmer over his support of a same-sex marriage initiative and perceived criticisms of the former president.
Trump downplayed, even derided, Emmer, with whom he has had a rocky relationship, while presenting himself Monday as a kingmaker who talks to “a lot of congressmen” seeking his stamp of approval.
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It’s like Groundhog Day
except Bill Murray was funny…this is pathetic.
I wish we could eliminate both national parties. Every person seeking the office would run on their own merits and not with a “D” or a “R”.
People can say we have an alternative in a Libertarian, but that too is just another label.
So disillusioned with our country’s political quagmire.
And now Donald Duck Trump has indicated he does not support Emmer, and that a vote for Emmer would be a mistake. Now we find out how deeply the Republican Caucus is in Trump’s tushy…
I don’t think that would produce the outcome I suspect you desire. It would not be able to stop like minded people from working together to get each other elected, or for wealthy individuals from buying elections. Not having parties means no party financial support for the non–wealthy to run for office. Politics would be just for the very wealthy and their closest friends.
And without a party to provide some level of organization, trying to run the place would be a nightmare. Can you imagine trying to assign committee seats to 535 Senators and Representatives all of whom want to be on one of the five or six really influential committees? Who runs the committee? Who runs the respective Houses?
And keep in mind, this isn’t happening in the Senate, where a near even split of seats was negotiated into an orderly Senate. Nor did it happen when the Democrats under Pelosi were the majority. This current farce is specific to the Republican Caucus, and has been brewing since Boehner and Ryan were moved out of the Speakership starting a decade ago. If you don’t believe in governing, but merely advocating, then you’ll never have the ability to govern and gain that for which you advocate. Throwing figurative firebombs is all good fun, but once you’ve burned the place down, you’ve no place to go to get done what you were presumably elected to get done.
Tony, the problem is not that we have two political parties but that each of the parties have a handful of fringe extremists.
The Republicans seem to have more than their share of these “wing-nuts” (including Indiana’s own Jim Banks) and they call the shots.
If I were a member of the Republican conference in the House, I would eject a significant number of them (including Banks) from the caucus, declare that Trump lost a free and fair election in 2020, and move on.
When Barry Goldwater counted members of the far-right John Birch Society among his supports, William F. Buckley led the effort to neutralize them after Goldwater’s crushing defeat in 1964. As a result, the Republican Party was able to rise from the ashes return the party to a moderate position in national politics.
Where is this generation’s Buckley when he (or she) is needed now? The party desperately needs someone with the brain and the guts who can and will lead the effort to de-enable Trump and his crackpot legislators and take back the GOP so it can function for “we the people.”
Ds or Rs or Ls don’t matter. They are all the same. They are in DC to line their own pockets and they hate all of us. They only need us to get elected and they keep us divided on petty issues to motivate us to vote for a side. When we really just want the same things, the opportunity to earn a living, to keep more money in our pocket, to keep our families safe, to have access to good education, good infrastructure, and inexpensive energy. The system is broken. People need to demand better and we need to do it now.
and four hours later they are already reporting he is DOA when a full vote comes
anddddd he’s dropped out.. back to square one
Time to elect Jeffries … it’s obvious the Republicans have no one.