(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Day 21 of a speaker-less House: Republicans try again (again) [1] ['Daily Kos Staff'] Date: 2023-10-24 The House of Representatives has been speakerless for 21 days. That’s three weeks in which the Republican conference has accomplished nothing but creating a toxic stew of resentment and infighting, on display for the whole world to see. In the past three weeks, they’ve tossed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, rejected his obvious successor—Majority Leader Steve Scalise—and suffered through Rep. Jim Jordan’s bullying and threats before nixing his candidacy. That’s raised the obvious question: Is there anyone in the Republican House conference who can get 217 votes to become speaker? On Monday night, they met again to try to figure that out. They entered the room with nine candidates and discovered that the only thing that could unify them was one of them dropping out. Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania got a standing ovation from the conference when he announced he was pulling out of the race. He decided he’s going to be too busy “leading President Trump’s campaign in Pennsylvania” to take the job. So there’s one MAGA candidate out. On Tuesday morning, as the conference was getting ready to start their balloting process to thin out the candidates, Republican Policy Committee Chairman Gary Palmer of Alabama bowed out as well. So then there were seven, of which Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota is both the natural front-runner and the biggest target. Emmer is not MAGA. He did not vote to overturn election results on Jan. 6, 2021. He’s also supported aid to Ukraine and voted for last month’s continuing resolution, which kept the government open. That makes him a target of the extremists, as do things like his vote to protect marriage equality. That came up Tuesday morning when far-right Rep. Rick Allen of Georgia told reporters he is a “Never Emmer.” The real problem for Emmer with a very big chunk of the conference is that he didn’t vote to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021. Prior to that night, however, Emmer was on record casting doubt on the election results. He also signed an amicus brief along with a bunch of other Republican lawmakers in Texas’ last-ditch effort to get the Supreme Court to overturn key states’ election results. Not good enough for Donald Trump, who told associates he doesn’t want Emmer in the job, and MAGA lawmakers trashing him. “[Emmer]’s openly hostile to Trump, which isn’t helpful since Trump will be the nominee,” one anti-Emmer member told Politico. “It’s laughable that he, at the end of the day, would end up being the speaker of the House. Even if he gets the majority of the majority, he will come far short for members who won’t vote for him on the floor.” Trump is being more public in his opposition to Emmer now, reportedly “furious that Emmer's team has allegedly shopped stories blasting members of Trump's inner circle.” x 👀 Former President Donald Trump giving a late night repost to Laura Loomer's "expose" of Tom Emmer. A source tells me Trump is furious that Emmer's team has allegedly shopped stories blasting members of Trump's inner circle, including some of his closest advisors. pic.twitter.com/iOgc5dWZxW — Stephen Neukam (@stephen_neukam) October 24, 2023 All of that will play out Tuesday while the GOP conference meets to winnow the remaining seven candidates to one. After nominating speeches, they’ll start voting. The loser in every round will be dropped from the ballot for the next round. Assuming no one gets 217 votes out of the gate, they’ll just keep voting until only one man is left standing. (They are all men.) RELATED STORIES: Resentment and chaos brew in GOP as speaker race intensifies House speaker battle heats up, Jordan's allies show indifference to threats against opponents Three Biden-district Republicans changed course, voted against Jordan. Too late [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/24/2201307/-Day-21-of-a-speaker-less-House-Republicans-try-again-again?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_5&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/