McCarthy vs Fwank → McCarthy into the lead! 0 and 8!
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“Democrats will try to force Republicans to reject McCarthy on a ninth ballot, according to a party whip notice. Republicans will only be able to adjourn if they can hold most of their conference together and agree to punt.” - NYT
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Things to occupy the time while waiting for a Speaker to be elected.
if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck…
Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman who is currently under investigation for possibly having sex with a 17-year-old and then paying for her to travel over state lines, was one of 20 Republicans who voted “No” to reauthorize an anti-human trafficking law on Wednesday.
The “No” votes ultimately didn’t matter, since the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022 was approved in the House for reauthorization with a 401 votes to 20.
The act, which has been renewed multiple times since its inception with very little opposition, focuses on severe penalties for perpetrators, particularly involving sex trafficking, and also bolsters support services for victims. Notably, the 20 “No” votes come from a party that currently doesn’t hold back from labeling anyone who opposes their legislation as “groomers” and “pedos,” and also comes as one of their most vocal personalities is under investigation for being a possible “groomer” and pedophile.
The investigation does seem to have stalled. I think the Greenberg guy copped a plea, so I’m guessing they don’t have the goods on Gaetz.
correct. Greenberg plead guilty. apparently the 17yo girl whom he charged on, has gone into the porn biz…
CNN (and maybe some others) reported in the autumn supposed leaks from investigators saying they were unlikely to bring charges against him. There was a lot of skepticism over the leaks given the timing before the election and the penchant for leaks beneficial tot he GOP to come out of the FBI to help shape a narrative, but the investigation has been going on for a long time now.
Exclusive footage of the Goober Squad arriving for the latest Speaker vote…
Gaetz is Oopsie.
The leaks at the time suggested that Greenberg would be considered an unreliable witness. Any idea where this is at now ?
My concern with where this is all going is that extremist Republicans will get wholly unsuitable jobs on various committees and cause more dysfunction, both in overlooking and dismissing egregious Republican infraction, and drumming up nothing stories about Democrats misdeeds.
It’s a shitshow, and some people who should possibly be in jail, or certainly nowhere near public office, might end up having a significant say on the future.
It’s galling that the likes of Adam Kinzinger have left. The ones with some sense, gravitas or dignity have all but disappeared. The Republican Party is becoming the party that protects alleged pedophiles like Gaetz, or racist hounds like Marjorie Taylor Greene, or family-gun-toting whack jobs like Lauren Boebert.
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The looming concern is that with a Speaker with minimal power, the GOP won’t actually be able to deliver a majority. Defections will be easy and common place, and the few caucus members who might try to make the traditional log-rolling deals will be readily undercut (and then likely ‘primaried’). Simple and not that distant example, the debt limit will need to be extended not later than the end of June. Those have become a stage for the performative nonsense the likes of the dissident GOPs have indulged in for years, even with Speakers with the traditional powers dating from Longworth and Rayburn. They will have open season this time around, and you can guarantee that even some of the McCarthy loyalists like Taylor-Greene will not be able to resist the opportunity for populist grandstanding.
The amusing thing is that the Republican attendance in the House will need to be unprecedently good. With a single mover Speaker rule, one delayed flight from Tulsa on a session day could allow the Democrats to dump the Speaker and completely derail the committees.
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There was a lot of RW noise about that, but that was distraction. A way to get out ahead of the incriminating evidence that would come out as a result of his cooperation. But it’s a bogus argument because if it were legit it would mean that all such cooperation would be tainted. The key is investigators are not just relying on the claims of a criminal, but using his information to obtain tangible evidence to support his claims. That is where the Autumn reporting was coming from, that whatever Greenburg was sharing was not supported by enough evidence to justify charges. But I’m skeptical of anything coming out of the FBI through unofficial channels that bolsters the PR of a member of the GOP. We’ve been here before.
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Not sure where to put this, but picked the US politics thread, but the hype over this story was only ever a manufactured one designed to sway votes in the midterms
Round 12 : 13 holdouts flip to McCarthy. Looks like it’s just the ‘Never Kevins’ and a couple of others now.
You may think the Defund movement is dumb, but this is why it exists
It is clearly a serious problem, but why not call it Reform rather than Defund?
The latter allows opponents to distract from the core issue and thus is completely ineffective, even damaging to the cause.
I understand the argument, but if you think the opposition to this would be moderated by them having chosen a better tag line then I think you underestimate the nature of the opposition and its motivation.
At its core the movement wants to take money from the police so that it can go to the things the police cannot do (can but wont?) and are killing people due to that failure. That IS a defund movement. And the entrenched interested are very entrenched, weighed down by the mountains of money they are used to receiving, and are lashing out in the interest of protecting their position. Nothing about the opposition is about safety. It’s simply about the powerful, politically connected groups who would prefer to continue to be very well funded to do things badly than take less money to have a smaller remit to focus on the things they can do well.