It's not like there's anything for them to work on...

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House Republican leaders are sending members home for the week amid deep divisions over funding the government ahead of the rapidly-approaching September 30 deadline, according to multiple GOP sources.

They had planned to be in session over the weekend to pass a stop-gap bill, but the decision to send members home shows they lack the votes to avoid a government shutdown.

This is what the GOP has come to. They could easily, immediately, defuse the situation by working with Democrats. Drop the poison-pill nonsense the extreme right insists on jamming into any bills that will never pass the Senate anyway. Agree to abide to the spending outline Biden and McCarthy agreed to months ago, and they could use Dem votes they'd win to pass a clean month-long continuing resolution. And then shoulder the nutjob caucus out of the way.

We'd all be the better for it. But McCarthy and the party he leads in the House have made it clear they can't govern their way out of a wet paper bag.

McCarthy knows he would lose any speakership vote so best to call it a day if he wants to stay in power.

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

I hate McConnel, but I think I hate McCarthy even more.

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gadje
I hate McConnel, but I think I hate McCarthy even more.

McConnell is very smart and very capable (but evil) whereas McCarthy is not terribly smart nor terribly capable and aspires to the evil that McConnell has achieved.

They need time to fundraise. That's why they're only in session about 150 days per year. They need the other 215 days to work their real jobs.

Did you imagine that their jobs involved being part of the national bicameral legislature and passing legislation?

My, how baroque.

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If the Dems back Mccarthy on a speakership vote, they'll have him by the short hairs. The hard right will hate him even more, he'll need the dems to hold onto the speakership, and he will likely still draw a primary challenge.

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“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

Seeing what is happening with McCarthy, I get this image of a watermelon with a likeness of his face drawn on it being squeezed in a slowly turning vice. As the face goes through contortions as the pressure increases, you wonder if maybe at some point it will stop slowly contorting and then just blow up in a watermelon blood bath.

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e pluribus unum

Need to vote everyone out and start over.

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Ombligo
If the Dems back Mccarthy on a speakership vote, they'll have him by the short hairs. The hard right will hate him even more, he'll need the dems to hold onto the speakership, and he will likely still draw a primary challenge.

Interesting.

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jonny

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Ombligo
If the Dems back Mccarthy on a speakership vote, they'll have him by the short hairs. The hard right will hate him even more, he'll need the dems to hold onto the speakership, and he will likely still draw a primary challenge.

Interesting.

Nah. He'll be gone the day hour moment he brings Dems into the mix. Right wing fascists are unforgiving; they have to be since they lack wide spread voter appeal and have no other way to wield power.

Boehner pulled it off with Democratic help.

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

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Speedy
Boehner pulled it off with Democratic help.

and then was gone.

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RgrF

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jonny

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Ombligo
If the Dems back Mccarthy on a speakership vote, they'll have him by the short hairs. The hard right will hate him even more, he'll need the dems to hold onto the speakership, and he will likely still draw a primary challenge.

Interesting.

Nah. He'll be gone the day hour moment he brings Dems into the mix. Right wing fascists are unforgiving; they have to be since they lack wide spread voter appeal and have no other way to wield power.

It would actually be pretty easy to pull off if the Gaetz Brigade call for a vote. The Dems just don't vote until the Republicans have, then just enough Dems back McCarthy to keep him seated. McCarthy doesn't have to bargain with the Dems, they could pull this off on their own - then they tell him that their continued support is conditional. He either plays ball or goes home. The far right has no one that can win the speakership but the less insane part of the party needs the far right votes to get a new speaker. McCarthy and his supporters won't have any real choice but to play along.

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“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

^this.

Also, McCarthy refused to allow Volodymyr Zelensky to address the House yesterday.

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“Zelensky asked us for a joint session; we just didn’t have time,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill, according to videos of the exchange.

…before he sent everyone home for an extended weekend.

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pdq
Also, McCarthy refused to allow Volodymyr Zelensky to address the House yesterday.

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“Zelensky asked us for a joint session; we just didn’t have time,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill, according to videos of the exchange.

…before he sent everyone home for an extended weekend.

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e pluribus unum

McCarthy needs to recognize that has been Boehnered & Ryaned. His political career as a rising star of the far right is over. He might as well do what's best for the country at this point. That might give him an avenue for success in the post MAGA world (if it ever gets here), but in the present world, he's finished.

The modern House Republican House leadership:

Newt Gingrich (stepped down + retired under pressure from R’s)
Bob Livingston (for a hot second) (stepped down + retired under pressure from R’s)
Denny Hastert (replaced by Nancy Pelosi + retired; later became the highest-ranking elected official in U.S. history to serve a prison sentence.)
John Boehner (stepped down + retired under pressure from R’s)
Paul Ryan (replaced by Nancy Pelosi + retired)
Mike McCarthy ???

Where GOP political careers go to die.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2023 11:33AM by pdq.

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pdq
Mike McCarthy ???

You must be thinking of Joe McCarthy because it appears that you’ve already consigned the other more forgettable McCarthy to history.

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2023 12:09PM by Speedy.

If McCarthy gets removed, it is going to be a CF coming up with a new speaker. The lunatic fringe will push for Scott Perry or Jim Jordan, neither will garner support from the semi-reasonable members. No one will make a deal like McCarthy did with Gaetz.

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“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

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Speedy

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pdq
Mike McCarthy ???

You must be thinking of Joe McCarthy because it appears that you’ve already consigned the other more forgettable McCarthy to history.

Brain fart. Kevin McCarthy. Mike coaches football.

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Ombligo
No one will make a deal like McCarthy did with Gaetz.

Someone will if it means they get the power of the speakership.

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

‘We are deeply concerned.’ Corporate America is bracing for a lengthy government shutdown

They don't understand. Republicans are only pro-business when they're in power. If they're not, messing up the economy with unnecessary shutdowns is a feature, not a bug.

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pdq
‘We are deeply concerned.’ Corporate America is bracing for a lengthy government shutdown

They don't understand. Republicans are only pro-business when they're in power. If they're not, messing up the economy with unnecessary shutdowns is a feature, not a bug.

I don't think they are even pro-business anymore.

They had to make a choice between the Chisto-Fascist white nationalist and Big Corporations.

They chose the Nazis.

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Lux Interior
I don't think they are even pro-business anymore.

They had to make a choice between the Chisto-Fascist white nationalist and Big Corporations.

They chose the Nazis.

They’re not actually mutually exclusive; see the Krupps and “Military Industrial Complex” in general.

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pdq
‘We are deeply concerned.’ Corporate America is bracing for a lengthy government shutdown

They don't understand. Republicans are only pro-business when they're in power. If they're not, messing up the economy with unnecessary shutdowns is a feature, not a bug.

^ This