The crisis in the Middle East and the Israel-Hamas war have dominated the news cycle, as they should, but there’s also a serious drama playing out here in the U.S.—the continued battle for the Speaker of the House position.
We’ve seen Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) voted out of the job due to a rebellion by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), followed by his former number two man, House Majority leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), who dropped out of the running because he didn’t see a clear path to victory. That leaves Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) as perhaps the strongest remaining candidate, but there’s no guarantee he’ll win the gavel.
The vote is coming up soon, though: the House will next vote to choose a new speaker on Tuesday at approximately 12:00 p.m., No. 2 House Democrat Katherine Clark (D-MA) said on Sunday. This could go on for a while—after all, it took 15 ballots to confirm McCarthy last January:
As a government shutdown looms in the U.S. and conflict rages in the Middle East, House Republicans struggled through the weekend to name their next speaker.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio on Friday won the GOP nomination for the key role, but fell far short of the 217 votes needed to seal the deal in a House floor vote…
“There’s no positive messages here,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tex.), who supports Jordan, told CNN’s “State of the Union on Sunday.” “I don’t want to give everybody the impression that it’s a giant crisis, either.
“This is democracy. Democracy is always pretty messy,” he continued. “I think what the real problem is is that we’ve allowed a different process of democracy to take hold within our own conference, which is that majority doesn’t rule … It’s not pretty.”
Pundits are weighing in on all sides:
The tweet continues:
He’s the only person with a chance of making it to 217 votes. We are going to see firsthand which House Republicans vote for a conservative Speaker. Or if their desire to give endless amounts of money to Ukraine, to placate DC special interests, or just their personal spite outweighs having a working GOP majority again. Republicans voters will certainly be made aware on which side their representatives stood.
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon also posted her thoughts:
Republican activists & volunteers I hear from want the House to seat @Jim_Jordan as Speaker & move the people’s business forward ASAP. Anyone making deals w/Dems out of petty jealousy or ego, is betraying his voters & should get a different job pronto! Lead, follow, or get out!
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) October 14, 2023
Of course, not everyone is on board or this would be a done deal. Some members are talking about making a compromise deal with the Democrats:
🚨RINO ALERT🚨
Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama is “aggressively” trying to make a deal with Democrats instead of voting in favor of Rep. Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House.
Call his offices and DEMAND Rogers reverse course!
(256) 236-5655
(334) 745-6221
(202) 225-3261 pic.twitter.com/yNy1kaiwZf— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) October 14, 2023
Jordan is maintaining optimism about his chances, despite the fact that over 50 GOP lawmakers signaled in a secret ballot vote on Friday that they won’t support him.
But Jordan is voicing confidence that he’ll be able to avoid becoming the latest Republican to be rejected by an increasingly divided conference, where frustrations remain high after eight GOP lawmakers joined with Democrats to oust McCarthy and Majority Leader Steve Scalise scrapped his own speaker bid less than 48 hours after a majority of the conference picked him as their next leader.
“We think we’re going to get 217,” Jordan said in a brief interview.
It’s going to be an interesting week.
Stop the stupid fivision and choose a Speaker. What you want leftist democrats talking rubbish and try to lecture you? Stop the BS and act like grown people.
If the Republicans let’s democracts take back over the house I will blame Matt Gaetz and his 8 democracts that caused this.
You can blame McCarthy, He lied to Gaetz, and America. DON’T forget why he got fired in the first place. We’d be 10 times better off right now if THAT POS from Cali fornication stood up for the people,rather than bask in treason. AND HE DID. HE BROKE OATH. IT’S NOT THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND.
It’s going to be difficult for any Republican!! Democrats ask for assistance to get Pelosi elected and they get it!! Republicans ask for assistance to get a Republican elected to a position that should be rightfully theirs and Democrats get RINOs to help them put the Republicans down!!!! I despise the sleaziness, the nastiness, the hatred, the anger, the attitudes that come from arrogant, pompous Democrats!!! I genuinely hope that the Democrats lose everything – the House, the Senate and the White House and I hope the Republicans are ready to undo much of Joe’s ridiculous policies immediately!!! If the government has to get shut down because of inter-party feuding, then so be it!! Maybe the country and the world will see what loons these Democrats are, how radical they are, how selfish they are!!!
It’s like this if they don’t vote Jordan in’ the public will have their names. AND WE WILL GET AT THE COWARDS.You will not delay this again. I hope they understand. Just FAAFO. Go on Rhino’s we got your number, You screw it up’ and we gona glue you up.