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It gets crazier - now Jordan does want a third Speaker vote [1]

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Date: 2023-10-19  

Horror film truism: You cannot kill the sociopath.

This morning, political America waited with bated breath to see if Speaker wannabe Jim Jordan would add to his failure — the predicted outcome — or would somehow square the circle and convince/terrorize 18 of yesterday’s ‘no votes’ to change their minds and elevate him to the job. Further, if the GOP caucus handed Jordan a third loss, the question became, how large would the margin be? Could he turn the tide? Would the deficit remain the same? Or would the number of defectors increase substantially?

Soon, the news came out. We were not to know. The GOP had postponed the vote — and the idea of giving the temporary seat warmer Rep. Patrick Henry (R-NC) sufficient authority to allow the House to operate for the rest of the year was gaining ground.

Had Jordan thrown in the towel? Or was this snarling incompetent merely biding his time while Team Rabid tried to figure out how to convince the dissenters to embrace the nihilistic Ohioan a few months from now?

That question too was soon rendered irrelevant. Gaetz, Greene, and others rejected compromise and progress in favor of further blood-letting.

And a third vote was back on.

The New York Times reported it thus:

Just hours after the hard-right Republican said he would hit pause on his candidacy and support elevating the interim speaker, Representative Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina, to temporarily lead the House, Mr. Jordan reversed course yet again and said he would move forward with his bid to win the post. It was not immediately clear when another vote could be scheduled. His decision came after a furious backlash from rank-and-file Republicans including many of his far-right supporters, who said empowering Mr. McHenry — a stand-in appointed to his post after the ouster of then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy — would effectively cede control of the House floor to Democrats and set a bad precedent.

It is hard to see how this tempestuous vacillation will seduce the not-Jordan wing of the House GOP into dropping their opposition. But it does dovetail with the common wisdom that the Republicans have no fecking clue.

The ultra-right is no different from teenage vandals who think smashing stuff is cool. Except that juvenile delinquents grow up. And while most embrace adulthood. Some continue their pointless destruction into middle age and become Republican Representatives.

Congress is getting abused. And true to his history, Jordan is enabling it.

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