“It’s sad. I’m sad. I’m heartbroken. Lots of really, really good people left in the wake here,” said Rep. Steve Womack.

Highlights: Their third speaker pick in three weeks lasted barely four hours. Now, with their desperation on full display, Republicans are trying again.

The House GOP is convening Tuesday night for its fourth internal huddle of the day as it hears from yet another unwieldy field of candidates to lead its broken ranks. No one has demonstrated the ability to do what the three previous failed speaker hopefuls couldn’t: Unite enough Republicans to land 217 votes on the floor.

Two members of tonight’s five-man field have already run and lost. That includes Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the second highest vote-getter earlier Tuesday.

There’s little hope for relief among the bitterly divided GOP, where the fruitless search for a speaker has become so miserable that some members even floated a return to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as an “assistant speaker.” (The idea has not been taken seriously inside the conference.)

[M]any Republicans fear they’ve reached the point where no candidate can get 217 votes on the floor.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    18·
    1 year ago

    I wonder how long it will take the Republicans to understand that they are so totally broken as a party that the only way out of this mess is actually put government over party and vote for a Democratic speaker. Luckily, this only takes a handful of Republicans coming to their senses.

    • Bakkoda
      9·
      1 year ago

      Honestly I think this is what they want. Is the end game to starve the beast, regulatory capture, and every other “let’s break the government to show the government doesn’t work”.

      If people think any politician involved directly in this debacle right now is really concerned about how they look, they aren’t. Their voters have already swallowed the pill, lined up and pledged undying allegiance.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I think a Democrat speaker would be a horrible idea for democrats. It sounds cool, but it would be bad politically most likely. They could put things up for a vote that they want, but it doesn’t give them majority so they can’t actually pass anything. It just gives Republicans something to blame (in a very stupid way, but a way that’d work for the politically ill-informed) instead of them getting the blame for all of it.

      The only “good” option I think is a republican that is picked by the democrats and concessions saying they’ll bring anything to a vote with a certain amount of bipartisan support. Maybe also concessions to vote a certain way for upcoming things, like the budget.