Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Flotsam and Jetsam - Still No Speaker

Yesterday was amusing, if you find politicians behaving badly funny, like I do. The House held three elections for speaker. In the first vote, Kevin McCarthy, minority leader of the the Republicans in the last house, failed to win 19 Republican votes, with the defectors going to a small number of other GOP reps. The Democrats, in all three votes voted unanimously for Hakeem Jeffries, as expected. In the second vote, after being renominated by Jim Jordan, all 19 defectors voted for Jim Jordan. In the third vote, after being exhorted to vote for McCarthy by Steve Scalise, 20 defectors voted for Jordan. Then the House adjourned for the day, presumably to get together to make some promises, twist some arms and knock some heads overnight. Althouse, Are you caught up in the drama of the Speaker of the House vote? and  "Matt Gaetz rises to nominate Jim Jordan, who just urged his colleagues to vote for Kevin McCarthy." 'Bonchie' at Red State, Anti-Kevin McCarthy Republicans Make Their Demands and Reveal How Far They Are Willing to Go and Tucker Carlson Addresses the Battle Over Kevin McCarthy  Capt. Ed at Haut Hare, BREAKING: McCarthy loses first ballot; Crenshaw declares dissenters "enemies"; UPDATE: Losing second ballot too. Sundance at CTH, VIDEO, Congress Electing Speaker of House, Republican McCarthy Fails on First Bid, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries Achieves Highest Votes in First RoundThe Republicans in the Swamp are Doing Swampy Things and After Three Failed Attempts to Elect a Speaker, The House of Representatives Adjourns Until Noon Tomorrow. At da Caller, Anti-McCarthy Voters Coalesce Around Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan. At RCP, Gaetz Voting "No" On McCarthy For Speaker: "If You Want To Drain The Swamp, You Can't Put The Biggest Alligator In Charge". Mediaite, Republican Rep. Tells CNN McCarthy Speaker Alternative Would Need to Come from Outside the House. Matt Vespa at Town Hall, Is Kevin McCarthy Screwed? and Mick Mulvaney Details Why Kevin McCarthy Is Facing Such Intense Opposition in Speakership Bid. Politico, McConnell still 'pulling' for McCarthy amid speaker struggles.'Duke' at Red State, Newt Gingrich's Expert Analysis on the Speaker Vote Is Eye-Roll Worthy "I don’t understand what they’re doing. They’re not voting against Kevin McCarthy, they’re voting against over 215 members of their own conference." Jim Geraghty at NRO (cited at Haut Hare) asks What's the friggin' point, Freedom Caucus?. At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.03.22 (Evening Edition), EBL sees Newt Gingrich: Tan, Rested, Ready?,The Geller Report is Opposing McCarthy, Legal Insurrection, House Adjourns After Kevin McCarthy Fails Three Times to Secure Speaker Position  This Ain’t Hell: McCarthy House election one in a century, and Victory Girls: Mark Levin: GOP Boneheads Are The Problem, also, McCarthy Short, House Adjourns Until Tomorrow. VodkaPundit at PJ Media, TRUMP ENDORSED: 'Kevin McCarthy Will Do a Good Job'. Joe Cunningham at Red State asks a good question, Why Did Kevin McCarthy Wait So Long to Try to Win People Over? At JTN, House Freedom Caucus chair says McCarthy declined his members' demands ahead of speaker vote "We requested transparent, accountable votes on individual earmarks that would require two-thirds support to pass, and to ensure that all amendments to cut spending would be allowed floor consideration. He dismissed it."  The Pennsylvania congressman also said the caucus "demanded that he cease his efforts to defeat competitive conservative candidates in open Republican primaries" and he denied it." Haut Hare cites CNN which whines The Right has already won the House Speaker election. "But even if McCarthy ultimately prevails, the show of strength from the GOP’s conservative vanguard has ensured it enormous leverage in shaping the party’s legislative and investigative agenda." Leah Barkoukis at Town Hall, Gaetz Writes Letter to Architect of the Capitol About 'Squatter' Kevin McCarthy and sundance, Rep Matt Gaetz Asks Congress Why Kevin McCarthy Has Moved into House Speakers Office, Because He’s Not Speaker. It would be a shame to have to move again.  For the life of me, I don't understand the fight here. McCarthy is not a hard conservative, but neither is the Republican caucus as a whole, and the Speaker needs to be able to work with all of them. I don't know if he'd be a good Speaker or not, but he seems to be the only one stepping up to the job. It's apparently very personal to some people and it seems to cross political lines. It will be interesting to see what they come up with today. 

From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.03.23 (Morning Edition), The Geller Reports New Text and Email Evidence: Pelosi Staff Secretly DECREASED Security at US Capitol for Jan 6 (While Pelosi Organized Film Crew For That Day), and Ray Epps Admits He ‘Orchestrated’ Jan. 6 ‘Insurrection’. Joe Weber at JTN, In upcoming book, ex-Capitol Police Chief Sund again ties Capitol riot to government intel failures, "Sund argued the federal government’s multibillion-dollar security network failed to adequately gather intelligence about a possible riot." Or they knew and encouraged it. KT at Haut Hare hears the Former chief say the Capitol is still not safe from domestic terror attacks. At Twitchy, J6 Committee withheld 1000+ interviews including one about Trump that seems PRETTY damn important. "In a 302-page transcript of his interview with the committee, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the voluble chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the panel about a meeting in the Oval Office a few weeks after Election Day, in which he said Mr. Trump seemed to acknowledge he was not going to be sworn in again. General Milley described Mr. Trump saying “words to the effect of: Yeah, we lost, we need to let that issue go to the next guy. Meaning President Biden.”" The New Neo The Democrats reveal the contents of Al Capone’s vaults Trump’s tax returns…. "and find nothing. They even have trouble pretending to find something." Capt. Ed asks Today's deep question: Was Trump right about pro-lifers and the midterms? "Not entirely, but neither was Donald Trump entirely wrong about the abortion issue in the midterms." My kind of answer. 

From the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.03.23 (Morning Edition), the Weasel Zippers, Maryland Dem: We Don’t Want GOP Investigating Biden’s Botched Afghan Withdrawal, and Kamala Harris Says She Has “Profound Concern” Over “Misinformation And Disinformation” On Twitter. Then she should stay off. Noah Rothman at Commentary claims Biden Is Right to Be ‘Worried’ About the GOP’s Afghanistan Probe. Eric Lendrum at Am Great reports House GOP to Investigate Federal Agencies for Abuse of Power. At NewsBusters, CNN Tries to Stamp Out GOP Investigations into Bidens, COVID, Fauci,  and NY Times Now Loves the FBI: SWAT Teams, Surveillance, Pressuring Social Media All Cool
wretchardthecat@wretchardthecat "The papers are now asking themselves: was Fauci the J Edgar Hoover of medicine? Bureaucracy and science have different priorities." Matt Margolis at PJ Media shows his ignorance of government HR policies, If Fauci Was so Important, Why Is His Former Position at NIAID Vacant?

At PJ Media, Stephen Kruiser says Arizona's Doomsday Clock Is Ticking Now That Crazy Katie Hobbs Is in Charge, but the AZ Times reports Arizona Supreme Court May Accept Kari Lake’s Appeal, Bypassing Appeals Court. I don't imagine she'll win and become governor, but it would be so cool if she did. I root for Bigfoot, too.

Capt. Ed again, Gloomy New Year: Americans' mood sours in 2023. And Zero Hedge reports St. Louis Fed Quietly Finds US Is Now In A Recession, after denying it through the midterms. Ken Rogoff at Project Syndicate fears The Looming Financial Contagion. David Strom at Haut Hare sees that the Media continues to handle FTX scammers with kid gloves. At least you can grow tulips. 

John Sexton at Haut Hare, Twitter Files: Twitter and the FBI 'Belly Button' At his substack, Matt Taibbi explains the Twitter Files: Why Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In. At PI, the FBI Paid Twitter $3.4 Million to Ban Accounts for ‘Misinformation. At the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 01.03.22 (Evening Edition), at Twitchy, Rep. Adam Schiff’s office had some demands for Twitter following ‘harassment from QAnon conspiracists’ Oh no! Not mean tweets! Matt Taibbi@mtaibbi "28.“WE DON’T DO THIS” Even Twitter declined to honor Schiff’s request at the time. Sperry was later suspended, however." From Trending Politics, BREAKING: Elon Musk Exposes Adam Schiff for Colluding With Twitter

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