Tom Emmer prevails in GOP balloting, becomes speaker-designate
Tom Emmer prevails in GOP balloting, becomes speaker-designate
Hoping to end weeks of chaos, House Republicans have chosen Majority Whip Tom Emmer as their speaker-designate. Now comes the hard part: electing him.
Until the Republicans decide to put someone forward who didn't attempt to undermine the election, they aren't serious.
Afaik, Emmer is one of two reps in the group of 9 (now 8, after one guy pulled out of the nomination yesterday) that did not refuse to certify the AZ and PA electors in the 2020 election.
Edit: turns out he did sign the amicus brief encouraging the SC to throw the results though, which is essentially just as bad… yayyyyyyyy -_-
I think you're both right. He did a lot to support the Texas vs Pennsylvania lawsuit to remove valid ballots, but he didn't actually vote to do it. So he supported the overthrow of the election, he just didn't follow through. How the scales balance after those 2 events, I leave up to you!
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Tom Emmer, a leading Republican candidate to be speaker of the House, baselessly said there were “questionable” practices in the 2020 presidential election.
Later, Emmer signed an amicus brief in support of a last-ditch Texas lawsuit seeking to throw out the results in key swing states.
Though he would vote to certify the results on January 6, 2021, the comments and actions show Emmer flirted with some of the same election denial rhetoric as far-right members of the Republican caucus.
Tom Emmer voted to certify the 2020 election.
No, but McCarthy was a loon too. This is a return to status quo loondom. Which is marginally better than 'loondom but even worse'.
Beautiful
They are rotating the designated speakers out and back into the septic tank so fast, the coming and going messages are all still in the "Active" phase. I wonder how many short-lived candidates we manage to keep in the top ten pages.
Someone go poke the Freedom Caucus and whisper "That's not your guy, is it? You shouldn't stand for this."
Hakeem Jeffries is still the top candidate, right?
He's received more votes in every Speaker election since McCarthy was installed on the 15th ballot.
By now he's received the most votes for Speaker than anyone in history, right?
@return2ozma It's pronounced "bouquet" ! Emmer means bucket in dutch.
I got this reference
I appreciate this niche joke
Even if Emmer or someone else wins in the next week or two, how are they going to keep the government open? A win necessarily means a promise to some psychopaths who will either find a way to tank the budget, or I guess just fire the new guy exactly like they did McCarthy.
I don't have much hope for what comes after budget negotiations.
The core problem that needs resolved is that the Freedom Caucus had the power to unseat an Speaker that brought a non-insane budget bill to the floor. If a Speaker is elected and that power is removed, a budget can be proposed and voted on with some Democratic support to make up for the Freedom Caucus being lunatics.
Can you imagine that precondition being allowed?
I wonder if Jeffries decides he has has enough of this nonsense, and tells the entire Democratic Caucus to vote "present" just to get it over with. Then he can go to the cameras and talk about how the Republicans are so dysfunctional that they needed Democrats to help resolve their differences.
Why would they bale Republicans out of their own self-inflicted stupidity for nothing in return?
Because at some point, work needs to get done there. The nutty wing of the Republican party embraces the standoff, they will have no issue leaving the chair vacant past all the deadlines and into next year. At some point, continuing to play the normal partisan game just plays into their strategy.
If Republicans can't agree among themselves, or consent to accepting help from Democrats, then the only thing left is to help them passively.
Because he’s forcing the GOP to get its shit together or collapse. And there’s genuinely nothing wrong with that.
The GOP is effectively using hostage tactics, and they have done for decades at this point. That’s all it appears they know how to do. Jeffries is refusing to negotiate with hostage takers, which is the correct course of action in the long run.
"Democrats should bail them out again"
Nope. Remember the orange rapist they cheered into a gruesome idiotic coup attempt? Yeah and Dems should help them?
NO. WE'RE CLOSED. Red state idiot bastards. Don't want to get the shit shocked out of you, quit sticking a knife in the socket. No? BZZZT. This is not that difficult.
They're destroying institutions and defying science. That is their only purpose. They have no other common goals. We should not help them at all.
But part of the Freedom Caucus agenda is to gum up the works. They're not interested in having government function at all. So it's possible that they will never, ever come to an agreement. Should the Democrats throw up 212 for Jeffries indefinitely? Or should they use what power they have to steer the Republicans to some sort of conclusion?