Pyrrhic

[hodad]

I don't know who's going to win here, but the GOP has done a wonderful job of making itself look like crap. McCarthy looks weak, the extremists (and their moneyed backers like the Club for Growth), look petulant and unbalanced. House Republicans have embarrassed themselves far more than even I had expected they would. It's been a great show, though. I'll give them that.

 

[pucho812]

I think the real winner is the American public. It’s not a full break up it’s just taking time off from government for a minute.
Without the speaker Congress does not get sworn in. Sits right with me.

 

[JohnRoberts]

This is just watching the sausage being made. I am encouraged to see so many people learning civics from the evening news.

===

I was going to post this in the joke thread but it seems like it fits right here.

I recall an old childhood joke about the different parts of the body arguing about who is in charge. First the head says obviously I have the brain so I should be in charge. Then the hands say, I should be in charge because without me you couldn't hold your food to eat. This goes on for a while with all the sundry body parts claiming that they should be in charge because of their unique ability. Lastly the A__hole puckers up shut tight and just waits a day.

The next day the whole body agrees in unison that the A__hole is in charge!

JR

PS: Imagine if we had social media a few hundred years ago? it would be a much different world if we survived to make it this far.

 

[Matador]

I don't know who's going to win here, but the GOP has done a wonderful job of making itself look like crap.

It appears that the party that doesn't believe in governance....is bad at governance.

 

[living sounds]

A house majority divided against itself...

 

[JohnRoberts]

It looks messy but I am sympathetic to some of the freedom caucus' policy demands (like regular order and no more 4,000 page omnibus budget bills dropped hours before a vote. )

It is not surprising that mainstream media and the left will try to paint this in the worst light. They need to reach over a hundred votes to set a new record.

Take your pleasure where you can, while you can... this will get sorted out too.

JR

 

[hodad]

try to paint this in the worst light.

The media is not the problem here. It's the behavior of the people involved. At each turn the right wing blackmailers have asked for more and more. McCarthy has acceded repeatedly, but none of his capitulations have yet yielded anything positive. There's no indication that the extremists have the inclination to put forth a serious candidate; more than anything they seem to want to secure tools to continually threaten the Speaker should he behave in any way contrary to their whims. I don't necessarily see this ending well for McCarthy, even if he finally manages to win.

 

[Recording Engineer]

All just another political game; a direct reflection of those we’ve chosen to represent us. I expect no less. Obviously, there are plenty of voters who are happy with all this just because it’s different from the norm and disrupts the usual. My only comment is: These are our heroes to shake things up? I suspect it’ll go about as great as Trump? Maybe not. Apparently he thinks he’s still king.

 

[pucho812]

vote #11 and still no chosen one. I heard if they get to twelve they all get a free subway sandwich

 

[Matador]

McCarthy has acceded repeatedly, but none of his capitulations have yet yielded anything positive.

It's because capitulations aren't the intended result. The HFC wants to dangle McCarthy out for as long as possible to generate the most press coverage about how star-spangled awesome they are, and how they only exist to stop Biden and the radical Democrats, etc, etc.

It portends how the next two years will go however, and as hilarious as this is, it will not be quite as funny when the HFC holds a gun to the nations head when the next spending bill needs to pass.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I recall some similar nonsense back when the tea party caucus pushed back against the old guard and made Paul Ryan the compromise speaker.

I don't know if we'll end up with some different speaker, or they will eventually fall in line behind McCarthy.

Having congress doing nothing for a few days is not the worst thing in the world.

JR

 

[hodad]

Having congress doing nothing for a few days

This batch of Republicans will do nothing meaningful for the next two years. It will all be performative BS. And it will be worse with the anti-democratic loons on the extreme right holding the sword of Damocles over the Speaker's head. But I agree: the longer we go without their nonsensical efforts to impeach Biden, or forming committees to investigate who shot Vince Foster's laptop from the Grassy Knoll in Benghazi, the better off we all will be.

 

[pucho812]

This batch of Republicans will do nothing meaningful for the next two years. It will all be performative BS. And it will be worse with the anti-democratic loons on the extreme right holding the sword of Damocles over the Speaker's head. But I agree: the longer we go without their nonsensical efforts to impeach Biden, or forming committees to investigate who shot Vince Foster's laptop from the Grassy Knoll in Benghazi, the better off we all will be.

The my side is holier than thou is getting old. The left has had more than their fair share of wastes and do nothings. Hell, one of the top of their heap reps my district. I’m ok with them not working for a while

 

[fallout]

 

[AnalogPackrat]

It's so much better when our "representatives" operate in lock-step groupthink mode, right hodad? Dissent and disagreement are normal in a functioning free society. What is disappointing is that no one else has stood up as a viable alternative to McCarthy.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I only see one possible alternative (Jim Jordan) while others have been floated. Just like years ago when Paul Ryan was drafted (against his better judgement), it took some major horse trading.

I am sympathetic to the freedom caucus goals, but they need to work on being effective 20 against 200 is not good math.

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

The original Pyrrhic victory came courtesy of Pyrrhus of Epirus, a Greek king who was undone by his costly battles against the Romans.

If anything the ancient lesson of King Pyrrhus might be worth review by Putin as he continues to sacrifice Russian soldiers driving morale even lower.

JR

 

[fazer]

Here is what’s really going on.

 

[scott2000]

So it's kinda a numbers game in some ways? The more members of aparty gives you more chances to win speaker? Like Kevin's 9 or so members giving a hard time makes it impossible for him but Nancy's 15 members that gave her a hard time didn't matter because there were more members?

 

[pucho812]

So it's kinda a numbers game in some ways? The more members of aparty gives you more chances to win speaker? Like Kevin's 9 or so members giving a hard time makes it impossible for him but Nancy's 15 members that gave her a hard time didn't matter because there were more members?

Well it is a numbers game. They need 218. Votes down party lines with a majority party usually ensure a win. But when the party members can’t agree you stand a better chance if you have more available at your disposal.