It’s like Lord of the Flies over there.
On Twitter Robert Costa from WaPo is saying Boehner is really lobbying for Paul Ryan to take the job.
Have you seen anything to corroborate the vote count? As of this morning, the conventional wisdom was that he had it locked up.
Fair enough, she did indeed get stuff done. But I think I have to stand by my statement that she was hampered in a similar way as boehner by dissent within her own party. She kind of WAS the dissent many times, fighting with Obama’s for control of the party.
Pelosi’s a Democrat, not a member of an organized political party. That’s what makes it so crazy that it’s the Republicans that can’t keep things in line. Historically, they’ve been disciplined, and able to whip their members into line. Since 2008, not so much.
They used to use earmarks to bribe the shit out of their members and keep them in line (“No more bridge for you!”) That got rid of earmarks in their big purity purge and they’ve discovered there’s nothing to keep the inmates in line.
We need to bring earmarks back. They represent a drop in the bucket in terms of federal spending and have a much greater salutary effect on the functioning of Congress.
Orders of magnitude less though - Boehner’s getting kicked out, the Dems are re-nominating Pelosi for (at least) the 3rd time.
8 years ago I would have not believed that I agree. Granted it is partially because I live in a state flirting with bankruptcy that regularly sends nearly twice as much in federal taxes as it receives in federal spending. So I hated pork/ earmarks.
Now? I can’t believe it, but I think I’d rather see them return. That way we can bribe convince some of the less crazy congresspersons to actually govern.
Kudos for the Will Rogers allusion, Aleck!
As to why McCarthy dropped out, I’ve read a rumor here and there that it was some long-term affair in his past that he didn’t want made public.
We’re kinda boned unless enough Dems vote with Republicans to elect a tolerable Republican.*
*because any Republican that votes for a Democrat for speaker will likely get beaten up in the parking garage by a goon squad sent by the crazies. That’s probably not that much of an exaggeration.
I’d much rather see a change in our electoral system that allows people who aren’t crazy to be elected, and thus keeps the government functioning without having to resort to bribery. Having said that, bringing back earmarks is certainly the lesser evil when compared to the current gridlock situation, and much more likely to happen than truly effective electoral reform.
Boehner was speaker for longer than most speakers have been, historically.
But got a lot less done than most of not all the others, not because he couldn’t reach a compromise with the other party, but rather a small faction within his own, as well as the lack of earmarks.
Well, i think that in addition to the removal of earmarks, the house under Pelosi got pretty polarized. The aca passed without any Republican support at all. From then on, it didn’t seem like either party was willing to work with the other at all any more.
This then ended up giving a huge amount of power to tiny factions in the parties, since they ended up needing all of their votes.
Ultimately though, it’s all garbage. The Republican party is messed up. I love how everyone is begging Paul Ryan to be speaker, and he’s just noping the hell out of there.
Sure, while we’re wishing for unicorns, may I add that we move to a system other than FPTP, such as proportional representation? Because that’d help with the stagnation and stratification a bit. It’s not perfect, mind you, but there would be no one party that has absolute control. Forces compromises a bit.
So much this. That would also lead to a system that could viably support more than two parties.
My bet - it’s going to ultimately end up being Ryan.
The party is really showing it’s fractured nature. Everything I’m reading tonight says McCarty realized, as he was watching the way the vote was setting up, he was just going to end up in the same positions Boehner was in - no ability to get any kind of unity on anything, no ability to actually lead the party, and he said screw this, why do I want to go through what Boehner’s being going through?
And why would Ryan want to be in that position?
So in the hours since Ryan first said no, Boehner has apparently personally begged Ryan to become Speaker. Ryan has cleared his schedule so he can make up his mind. We’ll know tomorrow, I guess.
As someone on another board pointed out, Ryan’s hopes of becoming President are doomed no matter which choice he makes. Refuse, and Ryan becomes the man who abandoned the GOP in its hour of need. Accept, and he becomes the next one the Revolution hauls out to the guillotine for secretly plotting with Emperor Obama.
My favorite theorycrafting from the Internet is that this was a clever plan by Boehner all along: when the chaos becomes unbearable, he will step in and generously offer to stay on as Speaker until after the 2016 election. And the GOP will do it, having no other option available.
Which would be an awesome finale for a season of House of Cards. Too bad we live in mere reality instead of inside a tautly-written TV drama.
Planned or not, that may end up being the truth of the matter. Boehner has said that he will stay on until a new speaker is elected “in a few weeks.” If they are incapable of choosing a new one, he may have to postpone his departure. He’ll be like Cincinnatus, only an order of magnitude more pathetic.