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| Name this political philosopher |
Pay attention: Class is in session.
1) The first vote of the new House of Representatives is to elect a Speaker.
2) To get elected, one must win a simple majority of the members. That's 218.
3) That means whoever runs has to get every swinging Richard on the [R] side to win this time around. Having the most votes that is less than 218 won't get it done.
4) If the first ballot fails, there's a second. And a third. And so on, until they elect someone with a majority.
5) Historically, this can take from one ballot up to 133 ballots - which took two months.
6) Until there's a Speaker, the House cannot do anything else.
N-O-T-H-I-N-G.
7) Like certify the 2024 election.
8) Which means no inauguration until there's a Speaker, and said certification, possibly weeks after January 20th.
9) Meaning neither Trump nor Vance could be sworn in. Maybe for weeks and weeks. Yes, really.
10) And with no Speaker Of The House elected, that also takes out the 3rd person in the line of presidential succession.
11) Number Four is not the Senate Majority Leader, it's the President pro tempore, i.e. the Senator elected by the majority to that post in the new Senate.
12) So unless there's a quick and bloodless selection of the next Speaker Of The House, the Acting President, who will be sworn in at noon on January 20th, 2025, if the 2024 election has not been certified, could be someone like current pro tem Peppermint Patty Murray [D-Lunatic Fringe], or former pro tem Chuck Grassley [R - RINO Extraordinaire].
13) Which Acting President would have full authority to do all official acts of the President until such time as the House gets its collective crap in one bag. Like appoint Cabinet members, nominate judges for life, conclude treaties, sign legislation, approve 1500-page budgets, and do all the things involving monkeying with the levers of power upon which you really want some Senatorial shitbag not to ever, ever get their grubby little not-elected-by-the-whole-country hands. Capice?
14) OR, the president-elect could try and curry a little less jackassery from a shitbag like Johnson, by helping him stay in the Speaker's chair without any fuss, so the House could speedily confirm the 2024 election results.
So...you go figure out why Trump might throw a bone to a confirmed pork-barreling shitbag like Mike Johnson, rather than read the newspaper in Mar-A-Lago for a couple of weeks until the House can get itself together, while some greasy jackass jerks the country around some more after Mr. Fraudulent gets carted off to the funny farm.
6 comments:
The most Machiavellian of all the Machiavellian political pundits.
100%
Winner! Winner! ;)
Agreed!
I used to think Trump was smart, now I'm having my doubts. I thought he'd maybe be neutral with Johnson seeing as he's operated the same as the last two Speakers in not getting any spending bill passed until the threat of a .gov shutdown forced him and The House to move, then bringing in a first pass that gave the Demonrats everything they wanted, LIKE USUAL. A bill so loaded with pork, 1500+ pages worth, you could hear it squealing from the farthest point northwest of the swamp, despite promises to the contrary from Johnson before he was elected. Maybe Trump will change his mind once he's sworn in and NONE of his agenda items are presented for action in the House.
Why Trump picked R members of the House and Senate for his cabinet, with such slim margins for future votes and with a number of known RINO's still in place, is another head scratcher.
Nemo
Dear Nemo:
Trump picked potential members of his Cabinet because he wants people he can work with to run his Agenda. They happen to be trusted and trustable people.
Leaving them in the House because of vote balances is no help AT ALL. Remember that POTUS has no way of effecting changes in vote data for the House.
If his choices for the Cabinet are head scratchers, y'all need to do some remedial work with the written works of the statue at the top of this blog post
Night Driver.
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