The Coup Caucus Votes Again (UPDATED)

 

The MAGAt Republican coup caucus is getting ready for another display of dysfunction, trying to reach a consensus on which of nine -- eight, make that eight -- far- right candidates it will nominate to be the second in line for the Presidency:

House Republicans coming out of a Monday night speaker candidate forum expressed some cautious optimism that their unprecedented 20-day stretch without a leader — and resulting shutdown of legislative business in that chamber — is nearly over. But members chastened by recent history weren’t yet ready to declare victory.

The GOP conference is set to vote Tuesday morning after hearing from the remaining eight candidates, a crop that thinned out slightly Monday night when Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., dropped out. He said he had other commitments he wanted to focus on, including working on former President Donald Trump’s campaign in his home state. 

“The House will be in good hands with one of those members that are up there now,” Meuser said. “I’m more optimistic now than ever.”

The remaining speaker candidates are Jack Bergman of Michigan, Byron Donalds of Florida, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Gary Palmer of Alabama, Austin Scott of Georgia and Pete Sessions of Texas.

The range here is bad to worse.  These are how they voted on key issues regarding American democracy and human rights:

OBJECTED TO CERTIFYING 2020 ELECTION
Jack Bergman (MI)
Byron Donalds (FL)
Kevin Hern (OK)
Mike Johnson (LA)
Dan Meuser (PA)
Gary Palmer (AL)
Pete Sessions (TX)

CERTIFIED THE 2020 ELECTION
Tom Emmer (MN)
Austin Scott (GA)
-Both members signed onto the Texas lawsuit seeking to throw out votes in key swing states

HAVE REPEATEDLY VOTED AGAINST UKRAINE AID
Byron Donalds (FL)
Mike Johnson (LA)
Kevin Hern (OK)
Pete Sessions (TX)
-But most of the candidates have reservations about additional funding to Ukraine.

SUPPORTED PROTECTIONS FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Tom Emmer (MN)

OPPOSED PROTECTIONS FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Jack Bergman (MI)
Byron Donalds (FL)
Kevin Hern (OK)
Mike Johnson (LA)
Dan Meuser (PA)
Gary Palmer (AL)
Pete Sessions (TX)
Austin Scott (GA)

SUPPORTED RECENT GOVERNMENT FUNDING SHORT-TERM BILL
Tom Emmer (MN)
Jack Bergman (MI)
Dan Meuser (PA)
Austin Scott (GA)
Pete Sessions (TX)

OPPOSED RECENT GOVERNMENT FUNDING SHORT-TERM BILL
Kevin Hern (OK)
Mike Johnson (LA)
Byron Donalds (FL) missed the vote

HAVE EXPLICITLY ENDORSED TRUMP'S 2024 BID
Byron Donalds (FL)
Gary Palmer (AL)
Pete Sessions (TX)
Jack Bergman (MI)
Dan Meuser (PA)
-Others are supportive of Trump's bid

Like we said, bad to worse.  A floor vote could come as soon as one of these chuds manages to get the majority of the caucus behind him, though it's unlikely it would be today.

UPDATE:  Emmer has been nominated after five ballots.  His chance of being elected Speaker in a floor vote?  Don't hold your breath.

UPDATE II:  The chaos continues.  Emmer drops out.

(Photo:  AP/ Getty Images)

"Speaker In Name Only"

Unprincipled weasel Rep. Kevin "Qevin" McCarthy, whose ambition is in inverse proportion to his abilities, was finally voted Speaker of the House of Representatives on the 15th round of voting in the wee hours of today.  The final tally was 216-212, with 6 Republican/ Seditionists voting "present."  What a mandate!  "Squeaker" McCarthy!

Here are excerpts from Los Angeles Times' Mark Z. Barabak's op/ed, which captures the man and the moment about as well as can be done:

For years, Kevin McCarthy wanted to be speaker of the House in the worst possible way, and that’s precisely what he accomplished by winning the leadership post after 15 humiliating rounds of voting and days of give-away-the-store negotiations.

McCarthy may have once dreamed of striding boldly forth to claim the mantle of a robust Republican majority.

Instead, with the GOP barely in control and the chamber in chaos, McCarthy crawled into the speakership early Saturday on his hands and knees.

He ceded so much to foes — effective veto power over must-pass legislation, greater say over committee assignments, allowing a sole dissident to trigger a vote on his ouster — that McCarthy will spend his shaky tenure, as long as it lasts, balanced on a razor’s edge. One nick and he’s gone.

Far more troubling, McCarthy's cowardly concessions leave the country hostage for the next two years to an extreme fringe of far-right zealots, who threaten to turn the normal operation of government and such typically routine business — like raising the debt ceiling to avoid default and economic catastrophe — into a cliffhanging drama.  [snip]

In the end, a willingness to neuter himself was the price McCarthy was forced, and proved sadly willing, to pay.

There is an epithet thrown at those in the GOP deemed less than 100% pure: Republican in name only. McCarthy, eagerly stepping into a straitjacket of his own design, has earned himself the dubious distinction of becoming speaker in name only.

His rudderless soul and ham-fisted miscalculation stand in notable contrast to his most recent predecessor, Nancy Pelosi.

While the San Francisco Democrat never ruled her caucus as the googly-eyed liberal of popular parody, she was guided by a bone-deep set of left-leaning convictions that helped yield a series of triumphs, including passage of Obamacare after many in her party had given up. Not least, a firm set of guiding principles also helped marshal the unruly cadre on her side of the aisle.

All McCarthy managed to prove in his clumsy reach for power was a bottomless capacity to get pushed around and capitulate to extortion. He won with scarcely a vote to spare...

The depth of the division on the Republican/ Seditionist side became clearest when, after the 14th ballot, there was an angry confrontation between alleged child sex trafficker Rep. Matt Gaetz (Teens 'n' Treason-FL)  and McCarthy supporter Rep. Mike Rogers (Sedition-AL) -- see photo above.  McCarthy himself engaged in a heated, finger- pointing confrontation with Gaetz and his sidekick Rep. Lauren "Landslide Bobo" Boebert (Sedition-CO).  Governance!  Civilitay!

With the ever- present threat of any one of the McCarthy haters calling for his removal, his tenure as Speaker may last longer than a wilting head of lettuce, or it may not.  Regardless of the bold pronouncements of McCarthy and the rest of the insurrectionists, he will be a "Speaker in name only" without leeway or power of any significance.  It will remain a caucus characterized by the dysfunction, radicalization, obstruction and instability that the country has observed most vividly in the past week. In other words, pretty much the MAGA vision for America.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are united and strong in opposition, the only good news coming out of this Republican shitshow.

BONUS:  The Daily Show (via MPS) has a humorous take on "McCarthy's concessions" --

(Photo: Rep. Mike Rogers being restrained from throwing punches at Rep. Matt Gaetz after the 14th round of balloting/ Andrew Harnik, AP)