Politics Random, Random

[ti-amie]

Path forward for Jordan, Republicans on House speaker now uncertain
Updated 43 min ago

The path forward for House Republicans on choosing a speaker remained unclear Thursday after a day of lengthy and, at times, heated meetings. Earlier Thursday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the embattled GOP speaker nominee, told his conference that he would back a plan to temporarily expand the powers of Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the interim speaker, and delay a third ballot for speaker. Jordan later suggested to reporters that the plan won’t move forward right now. He said he would seek a third ballot for speaker, with a vote delayed until Friday morning at the earliest.

Here's what to know
House Republicans have three speakers at once — ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), speaker designate Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.) — but none has real power.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... vote-live/

[ti-amie]

House Republicans vote to drop Jim Jordan; more candidates enter speaker race
Updated 10 min ago

House Republicans, meeting behind closed doors, voted Friday by secret ballot for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to step aside as the GOP speaker nominee after a third vote on the House floor in which Jordan fell well short of a majority of the full chamber. The vote to remove Jordan was 112 to 86. The move leaves the Republican conference without a nominee more than two weeks after the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as speaker. House Republicans will return Monday to start the process again. Members have until Sunday to declare speaker candidacies.

Here's what to know
In a vote for speaker Tuesday, 20 fellow Republicans opposed Jordan’s bid. That number grew to 22 Wednesday and to 25 Friday. Jordan could afford to lose four Republican votes in the closely divided chamber if everyone was present.

Texas GOP Rep. Pete Sessions announces speakership bid

By Maegan Vazquez

The list of Republicans throwing their hats into the ring to become the next House speaker is growing.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) announced Friday that he’s joining the race, saying in a statement that he “believes he can forge a positive path as a conservative leader who can unite the Conference.”

Sessions served as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2009 through 2012. He represented Texas’s 32nd Congressional District from 2003 through 2019, when he lost the seat to Colin Allred (D). Sessions has represented Texas’s 17th Congressional District since 2021.

By Marianna Sotomayor
Congressional reporter covering the House of Representatives
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), who serves as vice chair of the Republican conference, is also making calls to his colleagues to gauge whether he should run for speaker, according to his spokeswoman.

A member of the House Freedom Caucus, he is well-liked by the group and his candidacy could play well across the conference, given the relationships he has strengthened since becoming vice chair in 2021.

GOP Reps. Jack Bergman and Austin Scott announce speakership bids

By Maegan Vazquez
Republican Reps. Jack Bergman (Mich.) and Austin Scott (Ga.) announced Friday afternoon that they’re officially entering the ring to be the next House speaker, joining Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) in the race.

“My hat is in the ring, and I feel confident I can win the votes where others could not,” Bergman, who has been in Congress since 2017, said in a statement. “I have no special interests to serve; I’m only in this to do what’s best for our Nation and to steady the ship for the 118th Congress.”

Bergman, the statement says, “is not beholden to any faction of any party, but has gained respect in Congress as a leader — within the GOP conference and also among moderate Democrats.”

Scott, who ran for the speakership in an earlier voting round and lost, announced he plans to run again.

“If we are going to be the majority we need to act like the majority, and that means we have to do the right things the right way. I supported and voted for Rep. Jim Jordan to be the Speaker of the House. Now that he has withdrawn I am running again to be the Speaker of the House,” Scott wrote on the social media platform X.

Hern announced his bid immediately after the GOP conference withdrew its support from Jordan (R-Ohio).


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... vote-live/

[ti-amie]

Analysis: Threats couldn’t save Jim Jordan. But Trump-era intimidation has had an impact.
By Aaron Blake

CNN on Thursday aired harrowing audio of the kind of intimidation and threats that an increasing number of Republican lawmakers say they’ve faced over their opposition to the speakership bid of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). And it’s ugly. The caller leaves a message for an unnamed lawmaker’s wife and, while repeatedly qualifying that they aren’t talking about violence, they do threaten to harass the woman endlessly in public.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... CSEQ6I2QJE

[ponchi101]

Mafia politics. Next: some GOP person falling from an 8th floor balcony.

[ti-amie]

Tom Emmer drops out hours after becoming the latest Republican pick for speaker

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the House majority whip, and the third Republican speaker pick since the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), had been elected as the GOP nominee on an internal ballot earlier Tuesday. However, it became clear that he could not attract a majority vote on the full House floor because of Republican holdouts in the narrowly divided chamber. Former president Donald Trump took direct aim at Emmer as he was trying to convert holdouts. In a social media post, Trump called Emmer a RINO — Republican in name only — and “totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters.”

By Azi Paybarah
National reporter covering campaigns and breaking politics news.
The tenure of the House Republicans’ latest speaker designate, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), can be measured in hours not days.

He was elected the conference’s nominee at 12:16 p.m.

By 4:26 p.m., Emmer had dropped out.

By Jacqueline Alemany and Amy B Wang
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s (R-Minn.) voting record was what turned her against him, echoing other hard-right lawmakers’ criticisms that Emmer was not sufficiently conservative.

Greene said she “openly” opposed Emmer in the roll-call vote, adding that the Republican conference was becoming more conservative.

“He’s dropped out now and I think this is good,” she said. “Here’s what’s going on: The GOP conference is changing.”

GOP could return to plan to empower McHenry
By Marianna Sotomayor

It’s unclear what Republicans will do now that Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) has withdrawn from the speaker’s race. Does the conference vote for Vice Chair Mike Johnson (R-La.), Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) or Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.)? Does the conference start all over again?

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

House Republicans pick Rep. Mike Johnson as their fourth speaker nominee
Updated 1 min ago

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) was elected the Republican speaker nominee Tuesday in an internal vote by the GOP conference during a dramatic day in which Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) won a nomination vote but later dropped out. Johnson, 51, is the fourth Republican speaker pick since the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). He is an attorney and former radio host who has served in the House since 2017 and is the vice chair of the House Republican conference.


By Amy B Wang
National politics reporter
After the second ballot, we’re down to two GOP candidates for speaker: Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Mike Johnson (R-La.). Reps. Roger Williams (R-Tex.) and Mark Green (R-Tenn.) are out.

By Mariana Alfaro
Reporter on the breaking political news team


Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) speaks to journalists while holding a vote count, inside the Longworth House Office Building on Tuesday. (Tom Brenner/For the Washington Post )

Here are the vote totals on the second ballot: Johnson: 97; Donalds, 31; Green, 21; Williams, 20; Others, 34; Present, 3.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... aker-vote/

[ti-amie]

Laffy
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social
Via an author/journalist who I know from email list so I can't share name. This is his area of expertise:

"Johnson's elevation to Speakership is historic triumph in the Christian Right's long march to power. IMO, greater in important respects than election of Trump. Johnson is 1 of them but Trump never was.

The Christian Right political movement will be around long after Trump exits national stage. Johnson is 51. He epitomizes the generational and ideological changes that are well underway"

2/ Via Kyle Griffin:

The new House Speaker Republicans just unanimously elected:

• Architect of House GOP's efforts to overturn the 2020 election
• Voted AGAINST the Violence Against Women Act
• Voted AGAINST the Women's Health Protection Act
• Voted AGAINST bipartisan legislation to codify same-sex marriage
• Authored the federal Don't Say Gay legislation
• Co-sponsored legislation that would make it a felony for providers to perform gender affirming care

gfarrell@mastodon.world
Gerard
@gfarrell@mastodon.wor

[Owendonovan]

Laffy
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social
Via an author/journalist who I know from email list so I can't share name. This is his area of expertise:

"Johnson's elevation to Speakership is historic triumph in the Christian Right's long march to power. IMO, greater in important respects than election of Trump. Johnson is 1 of them but Trump never was.

The Christian Right political movement will be around long after Trump exits national stage. Johnson is 51. He epitomizes the generational and ideological changes that are well underway"

2/ Via Kyle Griffin:

The new House Speaker Republicans just unanimously elected:

• Architect of House GOP's efforts to overturn the 2020 election
• Voted AGAINST the Violence Against Women Act
• Voted AGAINST the Women's Health Protection Act
• Voted AGAINST bipartisan legislation to codify same-sex marriage
• Authored the federal Don't Say Gay legislation
• Co-sponsored legislation that would make it a felony for providers to perform gender affirming care

gfarrell@mastodon.world
Gerard
@gfarrell@mastodon.wor

He epitomizes misogynistic homophobic people in America, not a generational and ideological change. The Johnsons of this world have been around forever.

[ti-amie]

What’s Up With Mike Johnson’s Very Shady-Seeming Financial Disclosures?
The new House leader lists no bank accounts, including checking or savings, on financial disclosure forms going back to 2016.

BY BESS LEVIN

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

In the week since Mike Johnson was elected Speaker of the House, we’ve learned a tremendous amount about the Louisiana Republican, and virtually none of it has been good. For instance, the man the GOP just elevated to one of the most powerful jobs in the federal government tried to help Donald Trump steal a second term, is virulently antiabortion, thinks America doesn’t have a gun problem, very possibly does not believe in evolution, definitely doesn’t believe in separation of church and state, has claimed homosexuality is “sinful” and “destructive,” and is married to someone who founded a company that equates being gay with bestiality and incest. And now, for something totally different, we’ve learned the new House Speaker…doesn’t have any bank accounts listed on his financial disclosure forms.

The Daily Beast reports that in financial disclosures dating back to 2016, the year he joined Congress, Johnson never reported having a savings or checking account in his name, his spouse’s name, or in the name of any of his children. In his latest filing, which covers last year, he doesn’t list a single asset either. Which, given that he made more than $200,000 last year—in addition to his wife’s salary—is more than a little odd.

As reporter Roger Sollenberger notes, it‘s unlikely that Johnson literally does not have any sort of bank account, and that he’s, like, stuffing his money in a mattress. Rather, the most probable explanation is that the Speaker lives paycheck to paycheck, and the money he does have in various accounts doesn’t meet the reporting threshold set by the House Ethics Committee; members must disclose any accounts, at any financial institution, that has at least $1,000 in them and a combined value of more than $5,000. (Accounts belonging to members’ spouses and dependent children count toward that minimum.) And while it’s a fact that most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and that about a third would not have the money on hand to cover an unexpected $400 expense, when it comes to Johnson, the numbers don’t really add up.

Per The Daily Beast:

Johnson’s household income puts him in the top 12% of earners in the United States. And it’s extraordinarily rare for members of Congress to not list a qualifying bank account—let alone zero assets whatsoever.… Brett Kappel, a government ethics expert at Harmon Curran, told The Daily Beast it would be “very unusual for a member not to have to disclose at least one bank account.”

Jordan Libowitz, communications director for watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, offered a more blunt assessment, saying that if Johnson truly doesn’t have any assets, it “raises questions about his personal financial wellbeing.”

“It’s strange to see Speaker Johnson disclose no assets,” Libowitz told The Daily Beast. “He made over $200,000 last year, and his wife took home salary from two employers as well, so why isn’t there a bank account or any form of savings listed?” Johnson has also carried debts over for several years, which Libowitz said would sharpen the question. “He owes hundreds of thousands of dollars between a mortgage, personal loan, and home equity line of credit, so where did that money go?” Libowitz said. “If he truly has no bank account and no assets, it raises questions about his personal financial wellbeing.”

As Libowitz explained, “One of the reasons we have these financial disclosures is to know whether politicians are having financial difficulties—which could make them ripe for influence buying.” Which apparently is just one of the many things to be concerned about when it comes to the new House leader.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/11 ... isclosures

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The new Speaker also adopted an African American male child who is either 10 or 11 years younger than him named Michael. Maybe he's a friend of Gaetz' adopted son Nestor.

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Raskin voted against expelling "George Santos" because he rightly saw the measure as a way for the MAGAt's to start proceedings against their perceived enemies in the House.


Dr. Jack Brown :verified:
@DrJackBrown@mstdn.social
This note from Rep. Jamie Raskin to George Santos is a must for the Smithsonian.

[ponchi101]

So when I go full Nazi and I say that you need some sort of minimal credentials before you can be elected to public office, I am a Nazi.
How is this guy in congress? (Santos).

[ti-amie]

Sore losers club is open for business

[ti-amie]

Rick Santorum Says Quiet Part Out Loud After Republican Election Losses
Tori Otten
Wed, November 8, 2023 at 2:48 PM GMT

Former Senator Rick Santorum complained that the major election losses Republicans suffered are actually a sign of how “pure democracies” are a bad form of government.

Republicans faced devastating losses on Tuesday, as voters in Ohio overwhelmingly chose to legalize marijuana and enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution. In Virginia, Democrats flipped the state House of Representatives, taking control of the entire legislature. While abortion was not explicitly on the ballot, the future of reproductive rights in Virginia hinged on which party controlled the government.

“You put very sexy things like abortion and marijuana on the ballot, and a lot of young people come out and vote. It was a secret sauce for disaster in Ohio,” Santorum whined Tuesday night on Newsmax.

“Thank goodness that most of the states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot, because pure democracies are not the way to run a country.”

...Santorum is upset that democracy is working.

As Republicans across the country try to push more extreme agendas, many issues such as protecting abortion, legalizing marijuana, and raising the minimum wage are being put forward for ballot referendums. Republicans lose those votes every time.

But rather than take the actual lesson here and start proposing policies that voters like, Republicans are digging their heels in. Take, for instance, Santorum’s other gripe, that young voters turned out because the issues were “sexy” (again, ugh).

Maybe young voters didn’t want to just hop on some social trend. Maybe young voters actually care about protecting their rights.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rick-santoru ... jGKFz9U-Er