What’s your function?
Hooking up two parties and making ’em run right.
…
In the evenings, when I’m usually feeling wonky,
I love to take a walk through the Mall and to a honky tonky,
Where I often see an elephant and a donkey,
And I wonder, as I walk by, just what they could do if they’d talk to each other,
Although I know that’s an absurd thought.
Oh. Hi! Sorry. My mind drifted there.
As I’ve followed coverage of the U.S. House drama, I’ve been flashing on a much more intelligent cartoon series. Could we perhaps reboot Schoolhouse Rock to teach the folks in D.C. how to do their jobs? I’m thinking “217 is a Magic Number” would be great place to start. [Fun Random Fact: “3 is a Magic Number” was the pilot episode of Schoolhouse Rock.]
This morning, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) went down in flames yet again in his latest bid to become the Speaker of the House. 217 votes are required to win the Speakership and Jordan could have lost no more than 5 GOP votes without Democratic support. Jordon lost 20 GOP votes in the first round, 22 in the second round, and 25 in today’s third round. Based on that trend, Jordon’s vote total would have been zero by the 13rd round.
In a contentious closed-door intra-party meeting after the floor vote, the GOP apparently decided to (a) move on from Jordan and (b) not work with Democrats. Okay. Fine. But now what?
The idea was apparently floated to empower the temporary speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), to fill the role in a limited capacity through the end of the year. That would have been non-optimal all around, but it would have been better than nothing. (Nothing, however, was far better than Jordan.) Democratic votes would have likely been required, but I suspect that could have been easily negotiated.
Instead, it was reported that numerous far-right Republicans nixed the mere idea of talking to <ptui!> Democrats. They were seen waving pocket copies of the Constitution, presumably claiming that selecting a bipartisan Speaker was tantamount to treason. Perhaps they should have read the document before waving it.
The Constitution, in fact, barely mentions the Speaker. Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 states only that “the House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other officers.” [Yeah, it actually says “chuse”.] The power of the role is completely defined by the rules of the House, which the House can change at will. And the Constitution doesn’t mention political parties at all.
So the GOP’s next step was to pick another candidate. Cool. But rather than break out the sleeping bags and hunker down at the Capitol until they identified their fairy-tale Speaker candidate who can get to 217 votes without Democratic support, Republicans instead decided to just go home… at about 2pm on a Friday… until Monday evening… when they’ll throw a “candidate forum” to talk about it again.
WTF.
The world looks like a D&D game and the GOP can’t even decide on a Dungeon Master. But, hey, I guess everyone’s tired and they need to go home and take a nap. Damn. Haven’t any of these people ever had a real job with deadlines?
Even after nap-time, it is highly unlikely that the entrenched Republican camps will be able to find anyone that can get to 217 GOP votes.
The far-right Republicans who ousted Kevin McCarthy from the Speakership will complain, with no trace of irony, that a larger group of slightly more centrist Republicans are blocking their picks. The centrists will remain so enraged at the far-right’s tactics, that they will never reward their behavior. And, even if a miracle candidate did manage to emerge, his or her margin would be so thin that the Speakership would be as useless as it was under McCarthy.
Thus, the only reasonable path forward seems to be something along the lines of my previous proposal. Centrist Republicans need to cut a deal with centrist Democrats and elect a Republican Speaker who is acceptable to both sides. The fringes of both parties would likely be very unhappy, but sanity might prevail and the House could get back to work.
The question is: How much longer is this going to take?
Well, now I’m stuck in committee,
And I’ll sit here and wait,
While a few key Congressmen discuss and debate.