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Three Things: GOP House Caucus in Chaos

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

I admit I debated using a header photo from the archives taken on a circus fairway. Accurate depiction, yes?

And yet when I ran across this photo of a LEGO dump I chose it instead, in part because of the chaos, in part because of the minifig bodies strewn throughout — and in part because of the leopard lying in wait in pile.

Any time now someone in the GOP caucus will complain about the mess they’re making and how it makes the GOP look bad.

Insert Adrian Bott’s now-classic “I never thought leopards would eat MY face” meme.

~ 3 ~

I wish I’d noted the exact time I took this screenshot in Google News; I think it was about 4:00 p.m. ET:

Here’s another screenshot taken at 6:45 p.m.:

What a bunch of clowns. Especially this guy:

At 4:53 p.m., Sahil Kapur summarized the situation on the dead bird app by the numbers:

They threw McCarthy overboard when he had 210 votes in the House majority to be speaker. Then they picked Scalise, who had 113 votes. He withdrew. Now they nominate Jordan, with 124 votes. (The magic number to win is 217.)

Nancy Mace (SC-01) objected to Steve Scalise (LA-01) because of his David Duke remarks; apparently in the GOP it’s okay if you’re a closeted racist, just don’t admit it out loud.

Nobody knew who six-term representative Austin Scott (GA-08) was.

Quite literally, CNN published an article with this headline,
Who is Austin Scott, the Georgia Republican who lost the GOP speakership nomination?

Everybody knows who Jim Can’t Dress Himself Jordan (OH-04) is but too few want to vote for him or he’d have been a cinch in the first round. It’s doubtful he’d swear to the criteria which was put to Scalise: publicly acknowledge the outcome of the 2020 election which Biden won/Trump lost.

And of course there’s the inconvenient obstruction Jordan as House Speaker would pose, as Liz Cheney posted on the dead bird app at 11:55 a.m. today:

Jim Jordan was involved in Trump’s conspiracy to steal the election and seize power; he urged that Pence refuse to count lawful electoral votes. If Rs nominate Jordan to be Speaker, they will be abandoning the Constitution. They’ll lose the House majority and they’ll deserve to.
Twitter

This isn’t governance but a goat rope.

~ 2 ~

The Democratic House caucus Democrats back House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08).

That’s it, that’s Thing 2.

Democrats NOT in disarray.

~ 1 ~

Passed on October 1, a continuing resolution extending the last federal budget runs through and expires on November 17 — just shy of five weeks from today.

The nonpartisan, non-profit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget published a table document outlining the budget items which will expire without a new budget and in some cases, budget items which have already expired in spite of the continuing resolution.

Childcare aid and nutrition programs for children may be part of the expired line items.

The longer the GOP dicks around with picking a speaker, the less time they will have to negotiate a new budget.

The media should be hammering on this point but nope. The threat of hungry children and families struggling to work and ensure their children have care just aren’t clickbait.

~ 0 ~

Stay behind the barrels, keep your hands inside the compartment. This is an open thread.

Watching The Circus

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As I write this, the House is adjourned until 8:00 pm Eastern, which is when futile voting can begin again. Somewhere H.L. Mencken said that he didn’t mind paying taxes, because every morning he would read the newspaper and laugh his head off at the dullards in Congress. And Twitter is carrying on this tradition watching House primates throw poop at each other.

One thing is clear: the Republicans did not win a majority in the last election. The Democrats won 212 seats, the Republicans won 201, give or take 1, and the Burn It Down Party won 20 seats. Kevin McCarthy, that craven toady, has proved no one can negotiate with the BID Party; and that’s for the best, sane people don’t negotiate with terrorists.

So here’s my solution: the Rs elect Hakeem Jeffries and let the Ds run the House. In return, the Ds agree to take all reasonable steps to marginalize the BID Party members. No committee seats, no earmarks, no rides on military aircraft, no post offices, no flags flown over the Capitol, and anything else suggested by the Elders of the party, Jim Clyburn and Nancy Pelosi.

Pearl-clutching pundits insist that the Democrats must clear up this absurdist drama. I’ll pitch in: How about bringing back Bob Livingston or John Boehner? Maybe check the back bench: is Louis Gohmert available? How about an outsider, like, say, George Santos? And thinking outside the box, how about Brett Kavanaugh?

This is an open thread. Please feel free to post your favorite tweets, toots, articles, etc. and make your own jokes. As an example, here’s a gift subscription to the excellent Alexandra Petrie in the WaPo.

My favorite tweets so far: