your cause~!

A fractured GOP is a neutered GOP.

He doesn't seem to have known he didn't have the votes in his own caucus for his "Plan B" vote, so who really knows what Boehner knows at this point.

they do`t give a shit if they bring down the american economy and throw the world into another recession. their aim is to blame that black guy in their whitehouse and nurture him in the 2014 elections.

GOP will be the third party an Libertarians will actually be a real party.

... who hate the very idea of government.

Either way, the house is going to continue it's descent into unsanitary insanity.

I don't want that fool anywhere near the line of presidential succession!

unless some of the few remaining moderate Republicans combine with
Democrats to pass bills.

Those 10 seats we picked up just might amount to something yet.
They seemed disappointing at the time, but it's 201, 10 closer to
a tie, and only 17 away from it.

But I'm sceptical GRIDLOCK won't be the result.

Lets have a steel cage death match. Or nekkid mud wrestling. That might be entertaining.

Boehner will remain Speaker. There's no lobbying for any certain candidate and the animosity towards the Teabaggers is pretty extreme. Fact is, no one wants the job. As far as naming someone not elected by the public to be the Speaker, I find that reasoning very psychotic. The Speaker is #3 in the chain of command. That's like being elected president, and then picking your VP.

Those who don't want the job are the last sane (R)s. The rest are delusional and stupid enough to think they can make it work. The theme from Twilight Zone is on a continuous loop in their pointy little heads.

Whoever takes the job (and I'm hoping it's Cantor) is going down in flames in 2014.

Its not something that would go unnoticed by the Capital media. No one wants the job, especially Cantor, since it was he would made the House schedule, giving the Reps a whole week off every month. I don't think the guy has ever written a bill, either.

You're a hoot!

the craziest of the crazies ....

The teabaggers surprise them.

As much as I dislike Boner I can't help but think that even less would be accomplished by the House with a teabagger as speaker than what they've done in the past 2 years.

Last edited Thu Dec 27, 2012, 07:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Could this be the way for Dems to control the House? Does anyone here know how the Speaker vote works?

But your premise is entertaining. Putting a (D) at the head of this ongoing debacle would be the smartest thing they could do. The next two years is going to gravely damage anyone who sits at the head of the table.

But they're not smart.

And the majority prevails because they are the majority?

because they have the majority of votes. So everyone votes, a majority of votes elects the Speaker, although members from either side can vote for the other side too. So it would theoretically be possible for a member of the minority party to get enough votes and become Speaker.

Hope this makes sense.

Does he just need a majority of his caucus, or does he, in fact, need a majority of the entire House?

And, if Boehner is deposed, is there any chance of getting a few of the at-least-somewhat sane 'pugs to back a predominately Dem coalition organization?

Does anybody know on this for sure?

to choose a Speaker.
(According to L. O'Donnell, I think).
So, if the Republicans split their votes among two people, and Nancy Pelosi had a plurality, that would not be enough.

An absolute majority of House members is necessary to elect a Speaker, abstentions excepted.

If every person elected is sworn in and votes on January 3rd, John Boehner (or anyone else, for that matter) needs 218 votes to be elected Speaker. If no candidate is elected Speaker, a fresh vote is held until a person is elected.

While there is no precedent of this in the American system, standard parliamentary procedure is that a new round of voting is held until one person gets 218 votes. Candidates can be nominated or dropped each round.

The Speaker of the House, while the de facto top partisan in the House, is officially a non-partisan position. Of course, in practice, it goes to whomever is selected by the caucus of the majority caucus.

Would the House totally grind to a halt in that case?

i just hope someone crazier than boner doesn't get voted in. i love watching them plot against each other, in secret, behind closed doors.

...if everyone knows you're plotting, you're not doing it right...

And this is why the Tea Partiers will never be able to control the House: you must have not a little bit of the stupid in you to be a Tea Partier, and that stupidity will almost certainly translate into procedural incompetence during the rough-and-tumble opening day in the House.

When the new Congress opens with no rules whatsoever in the House, the Tea Partiers simply won't be able to keep up with the maneuvering that the more experienced top-hat Republicans (and more importantly, their more experienced staff and supporting lobbyists) will know by heart.

Now, all of that changes if one of the top-hats bucks up and decides to challenge Boehner from within the ranks of the money-Republicans. Then, suddenly, the predictable intransigence of the Tea Partiers could wind up being the key to what happens next. It could happen, but I think it is unlikely.

Right now I'm wondering if the Tea Partier's knack for saying "no" might be used by House Democrats to temporarily usurp the proceedings themselves. I don't know how it all works well enough to say for sure.

The Republicans who support Boehner would be ticked off at the coup and would refuse to support a RW alternative.

The linked article suggests Huntsman as a possibility. The Speaker doesn't need to be a member of the House. The idea is that Huntsman could get some Dem votes and be elected. The Tea Partiers would not have elected one of their own but they would have sent the message that their caucus is not to be trifled with.

I'd rate it as heavily odds-against but not totally out of the question.

would not be able to cast votes.

There are 435 seats in the House, and presumsbly they are all filled, following the Nov. election.

To have a secret ballot, wouldn't they have to hold a vote that wouldn't be secret to change the rules? Boehner would just punish the people who voted for the secret ballot.

Also, most members know that without the ability of leadership to punish, party unity would fall apart and they would all lose.

...when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. What you are experiencing is the logical conclusion of the Southern Strategy.

Chickens, roost, etc.

- I know, it's an oldie but a goodie. All the best ones are.....

K&R

“He’s been using this, and I must say with great skill–-and ruthless skill and success–to fracture and basically shatter the Republican opposition… His objective from the very beginning was to break the will of the Republicans in the House, and to create an internal civil war. And he’s done that.”

It is a delightful read. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/krauthammer-to-hannity-obama-has-successfully-created-an-internal-civil-war-within-the-gop/

So while the House GOP is coup-plotting and back-stabbing, a major pundit is giving Obama the credit for their implosion.

Hekate