In opposition, sure. But as Speaker, Jeffries becomes a target. He becomes “The Democrat” the media can point to and say ‘why aren’t you getting anything done?’ so they don’t piss Trump off. And we’ve seen them already bending over backwards to curry favor and not piss Trump off. And he’s not even President yet.
You really think they won’t spend 2 years blaming Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats? You really think the American people are discerning, critical thinkers who won’t believe whatever the fuck they’re told?
That’s precisely why the R’s will make their performative gestures against Johnson, but will never allow Jeffries to be voted Speaker as long as they have the numbers to prevent it. The Speaker has too much power over which bills can come to the floor for a vote.
RIght. So once Jeffries is Speaker, the Rs never need to defend ‘why isn’t X coming to a vote?’, they just blame Jeffries and publically demonize everything he does bring as ‘the woke liberal agenda’.
Do House rules carry over? Regardless the new Speaker, will a single member still be able to pull a “Gaetz” and demand a vote on retaining a sitting Speaker?
Johnson is claiming to be bringing a new rules package that will require 9 republicans to put forward a motion declaring the chair empty. So he’s trying to avoid that. We’ll find out whether he succeeds.
Johnson is saying he’s making zero deals for votes, probably because nobody is standing up as an alternative. So he’s not actually at risk. It’s just a question of how much drama the R’s want before they elect him again. I’m starting to think he might be elected on the first vote.
We can delay them just fine in opposition. Unless the Senate nukes the filibuster, they can’t just ram shit through there (and if they do, then we’re not putting it back). And in the House, they’ve demonstrated that they can’t get their shit together no matter what.
But giving the media Jeffries, so they can blame him, and blame ‘the Democrats’ for everything for two years? That hurts our chances to take back the House.
Plenty of people who voted Democratic in 2020 seem to have cared what the constant media circus told them about Joe being too old and the economy being bad even though objective measures said otherwise.
If Jeffries were somehow elected, I’ll be laughing myself silly for at least a day. Of course, Jeffries will immediately face a Motion to Vacate the Chair, which he will lose because the abyssal embarrassment of having the Minority Leader elected Speaker through their own incompetence will force the GQP to get their (literal, not figurative) shit in a pile.
Note that this is entirely different from a group of GOP so-called ‘moderates’ bolting to ally with the Democratic Caucus to elect a quasi sane House leadership. That is something that would be under actual consideration if anyone who actually is a GOP ‘moderate’ existed. There are no such animals, and so the only way Jeffries becomes (temporary) Speaker is by GQP incompetence.
