Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Friday, January 6, 2023

Can He Ever Get There?

 Can McCarthy get to a majority of voting members? Ever?

I'm going to assume that Gaetz and Boebert are so locked into their anti-McCarthy posture that they will never, ever vote for him, no matter the concessions. Biggs and Gosar seem also pretty unmovable. I'm guessing there's at least one more holdout who will never budge.

McCarthy could benefit from some of the Taliban 20 voting present, but he needs 13 of the holdouts to switch, otherwise, Hakeem Jeffries becomes Speaker. McCarthy has to reach 213, with the rest voting present.

I just don't see how the math and the politics work at this point. How do these morons climb down from the position that they've taken? How do you gum up everything for days and then say, "All good!"

Ultimately, I think Scalise becomes Speaker for this very reason, but - man - it would be awesome to see Democrats merge with five Republicans to create a unity coalition, however unstable that might be.

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