…but not much more, still TBD:

Now what happens?

Quote

Biden congratulated McCarthy, saying he is “ready to work with House Republicans to deliver results for working families.”

… He added, that “the future is too promising to be trapped in political warfare."

The GOP, of course, has a different view:

Quote

Despite the GOP’s underwhelming showing the party will still have notable power. Republicans will take control of key committees, giving them the ability to…launch probes of Biden, his family and his administration. There’s particular interest in investigating the overseas business dealings of the president’s son Hunter Biden. Some of the most conservative lawmakers have raised the prospect of impeaching Biden, though that will be much harder for the party to accomplish with a tight majority.

Poor dears. They simply. cannot. help. themselves.

Benghazi, redux; then impeachment. Well, that worked so well for them last time.

Stock up on popcorn, folks.

Ah, cr@p.

I know you are, but what am I ?

They will hoist themselves on their own petard.

John Boehner had like 250 GOP seats when he was Speaker and they were an out of control mess. So he quit.

McCarthy will get nothing done except waste money on stupid investigations while blocking the ones we need, like Jan. 6, unless he leads to the middle and forms a coalition with Dems.

Which he won't.

Is there anybody in that new GOP crop with sense? They lost some good ones due to Trump.

Quote
Lemon Drop
They lost some good ones due to Trump.

---

Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

Benghazi, redux; then impeachment. Well, that worked so well for them last time.

Republicans will tell you that were it not for the constant drawn out Benghazi drumbeat Clinton would have been President. Not unlike the drawn out impeachment drama that allowed Bush to get within striking distance of Gore.

Expect the next two years to be a long series of Congressional antics with an eye toward 2024.

Kevin McCarthy is SO not up to the job of being Speaker, even if he had a large majority rather than the razor thin margin he will get. Ironic that he's wanted it so badly and he will suck at it almost as badly as he wanted it.

Some of the politicos are saying McCarthy won't be Speaker. He just doesn't have the votes and it might end up being someone who can negotiate a coalition with Democrats.

At least three of those seats are directly attributable to DeSantis. He vetoed the Republican redistricting maps, drew up his own, and then got the legislature to pass those versions. His maps eliminated 3 seats that were specifically put in place by the courts to have minority representation. The new districts all went Red and will likely continue to do so for the next decade.

---

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

Quote
Ombligo
At least three of those seats are directly attributable to DeSantis. He vetoed the Republican redistricting maps, drew up his own, and then got the legislature to pass those versions. His maps eliminated 3 seats that were specifically put in place by the courts to have minority representation. The new districts all went Red and will likely continue to do so for the next decade.

Yep, but to be fair, Florida isn't the only place where gerrymandering has occurred. The New York redistricting plan was pretty remarkable in trying to pack Dems in the state. Of course, the New York Dems went a step too far in trying to gerrymander Dem seats and the courts didn't allow it and redid the districts. Under the original plan, Dems in NY were expected to win 22 seats, leaving 4 for Repubs. Under the court-mandated change they were expected to win 15 seats. [www.cnn.com]

The actual outcome matched that with 15 Dem seats and 11 Republican seats. It's interesting to speculate that if the Dems hadn't stretched too far the courts might have allowed the redistricting that favored more Dems but not the almost wipe-out of Repubs that they passed. And maybe the Dems would still have the House, despite the Florida changes. Of course, all of this is coulda', woulda' but still interesting.

When asked what the legislative agenda would be for Republicans in the House as the majority, McCarthy said, "tackling inflation, rising crime and border security."

"Tackling inflation" means cutting government spending on the things government does that they don't like - like cutting all the nasty new IRS agents the Democrats got added to give the IRS the resources it needs to adequately investigate more rich people's tax returns. Of course, nothing they do will have much of an affect on the inflation rate.

Dealing with "rising crime" means trying to pass legislation putting more people in jail for longer. And try to pass legislation making it easier to buy a gun. Those things will for sure reduce the size of the cesspools festering away in cities. [/s]

Dealing with "border security" means legislation with more money for the wall and giving the Border Patrol more gestapo powers. What it doesn't mean is passing legislation that would set up a system where employers can verify the status of an applicant on-line - which would cut down significantly on immigrants without proper papers getting jobs here and thus induce them not to come. They won't pass that legislation because that system already exists and their wealthy capitalist supporters don't want to use it because cheap labor. The Republican majority in the House could pass legislation to require employers (maybe of a certain size threshold) use the e verify system. But they won't do that.

So, yeah, not a lot of meat on those legislative bones. But lots and lots of investigations aimed at diminishing Biden, for sure.

---

e pluribus unum

Some Republican representatives have grumbled about wanting to investigate the Jan. 6 committee and its members. If Trump were to still hold a lot a sway in the Party, I think if he called for such investigations they would do it. The way things are going for Trump now, though, I don't think the Republican caucus as a whole will be that interested in dredging up what happened around Jan. 6. But maybe there is a zealous enough core to push it through.

---

e pluribus unum

Even if they turn up a smudge of dirt on Hunter, what have they accomplished?

It’s not going to additionally fire up the base. It’s not going to swing any voters.

And it will turn off many who detest this sort of partisan b.s.

McCarthy refused to let any of his loyalists sit on the Jan 6 commission. A significant error, because it took away the opportunity for the MAGA Republicans to run interference and to bloviate about the unfairness of it all on the microphone for hours with a captive audience.

I'm guessing Nancy will handle it differently.

Quote
Acer
McCarthy refused to let any of his loyalists sit on the Jan 6 commission. A significant error, because it took away the opportunity for the MAGA Republicans to run interference and to bloviate about the unfairness of it all on the microphone for hours with a captive audience.

I'm guessing Nancy will handle it differently.

McCarthy tried to put Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks on the committee but Pelosi would not assign them to it. Then he made the tactical error and pulled the remaining three that she had approved.

---

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

Quote
Michael

Quote
Ombligo
At least three of those seats are directly attributable to DeSantis. He vetoed the Republican redistricting maps, drew up his own, and then got the legislature to pass those versions. His maps eliminated 3 seats that were specifically put in place by the courts to have minority representation. The new districts all went Red and will likely continue to do so for the next decade.

Yep, but to be fair, Florida isn't the only place where gerrymandering has occurred. The New York redistricting plan was pretty remarkable in trying to pack Dems in the state. Of course, the New York Dems went a step too far in trying to gerrymander Dem seats and the courts didn't allow it and redid the districts. Under the original plan, Dems in NY were expected to win 22 seats, leaving 4 for Repubs. Under the court-mandated change they were expected to win 15 seats. [www.cnn.com]

The actual outcome matched that with 15 Dem seats and 11 Republican seats. It's interesting to speculate that if the Dems hadn't stretched too far the courts might have allowed the redistricting that favored more Dems but not the almost wipe-out of Repubs that they passed. And maybe the Dems would still have the House, despite the Florida changes. Of course, all of this is coulda', woulda' but still interesting.

Interesting point is that the courts result was respected in NY and the maps were redrawn. Unlike in OH where the maps maps were challenged and found to be unconstitutional three times, but were still certified and used anyway.

And or in Iowa where Des Moines lost its southern burbs and shifted right just enough to barely flip Cindy Axne's seat.

Quote
Z

Quote
Michael

Quote
Ombligo
At least three of those seats are directly attributable to DeSantis. He vetoed the Republican redistricting maps, drew up his own, and then got the legislature to pass those versions. His maps eliminated 3 seats that were specifically put in place by the courts to have minority representation. The new districts all went Red and will likely continue to do so for the next decade.

Yep, but to be fair, Florida isn't the only place where gerrymandering has occurred. The New York redistricting plan was pretty remarkable in trying to pack Dems in the state. Of course, the New York Dems went a step too far in trying to gerrymander Dem seats and the courts didn't allow it and redid the districts. Under the original plan, Dems in NY were expected to win 22 seats, leaving 4 for Repubs. Under the court-mandated change they were expected to win 15 seats. [www.cnn.com]

The actual outcome matched that with 15 Dem seats and 11 Republican seats. It's interesting to speculate that if the Dems hadn't stretched too far the courts might have allowed the redistricting that favored more Dems but not the almost wipe-out of Repubs that they passed. And maybe the Dems would still have the House, despite the Florida changes. Of course, all of this is coulda', woulda' but still interesting.

Interesting point is that the courts result was respected in NY and the maps were redrawn. Unlike in OH where the maps maps were challenged and found to be unconstitutional three times, but were still certified and used anyway.

That's a really interesting piece about Ohio.

Let the investigations commence

Quote
Mr645
Let the investigations commence

Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi!

Hunter, Hunter, Hunter

Big guy, Big Guy, Big guy

Quote
Mr645
Hunter, Hunter, Hunter

Big guy, Big Guy, Big guy

I do so look forward to the GOP trying to beat on Hunter Biden for “trading on his father’s [or father-in-law’s?] name”.

By all means, let's investigate Hunter Biden. Let's see him testify to Congress and cooperate with investigators, instead of hiding behind a wall of lawyers while shopping for sycophant judges, whining to Sean Hannity and fleecing his followers for donations.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2022 09:34PM by Acer.