GOP Kevin McCarthy admits Benghazi scandal was about defeating Clinton

Somewhere Nancy Pelosi is giggling

 

^^^ yea, interesting to see how Republican will manage this. A speaker outside the house would be a first, huh?

Has there ever been a Speaker from the minority party? Has there even ever been a Speaker from an alliance of the two parties?

 

An alliance would drive the "freedom" caucus even more BS crazy.

 

Beauty of an alliance is that the Speaker could then permanently ignore the freedom caucus. But with the devastation of the Dems in the House, I'm not sure there are enough moderates left to break away, and even if there are, Pelosi is very good at holding her group together. Dems would try to extract a steep price for their support, and that likely turns the non-crazy GOPers away.

 

Maybe Kayne's available?

 

Zero chance of a coalition at the federal level. There have been coalitions at the state level in recent years. (Alaska Senate and New York Senate) The Texas House also operates as an informal coalition but Democrats in that coalition have fairly limited bargaining power.

At the federal level, any Republican that joins a coalition with the Democrats will get instantly primaried. Ads will go up the next week and they'll be pummeled until the Republican primary. Democrats will also demand equal numbers of committee chairmanships, majority representation on certain committees and House leadership positions. The Democrats have no incentive to be nice in this situation. They'll play hardball and will extract too large a price for their votes.

Coalitions are also far more likely (if at all possible) in the Senate than the House. The structure of the House makes it much harder to maintain a coalition.

EDIT - I looked it up and there has been a coalition speaker. In 1917, Republicans and Democrats both failed to get a majority because the Progressive Party had won seats in the House. The Progressive Party ended up forming a coalition with the Democrats and elected a Democratic speaker. In 1931, the Republicans and Democrats had an equal number of seats and there was 1 member of a third party from Minnesota who joined the Democrats to give them the speakership but I wouldnt call that a coalition.

 

Agree that it's highly unlikely, but we're also in uncharted waters here. Or it's possible that Boehner just stays on in a temporary capacity, freed from the chains of the Freedom Caucus until they figure out something else.

How do you see this playing out? Do you see any potential candidates in the GOP?

 

LOL, the Party of No can't even come up with a House leader.

 

Why not? He has plenty of spin for the GARM, so why not lend it to politics?

 

To me, it seems entirely consistent.

1. Don't believe government should exist.
2. Get elected railing against government.
3. Undermine any possible functioning of government.
4. Laugh? High-five?
5. In any case, get reelected in gerrymandered district.
6. America returns to "feral bands of mud people."

 

Because he's really bad at it. To be a spin-master, you have to be remotely believable.

 

I'm not so sure about that in today's GOP...

 

No clue. I think its crazy just to think that a backbench Republican is going to be speaker. That in and of itself is crazy, let alone the fact that we have absolutely no idea who that person might be.

There's no point in even trying to speculate until we hear some names.

Or the house Republicans can't agree on a choice and Boehner gets stuck as speaker and can't resign.

 

I thought there were two names... Daniel Webster and Jason Chaffetz?

 

I actually think that the way Bobby argued it was at least halfway reasonable: that McCarthy could argue that he didn't mean that the Committee was making stuff up, but exposing the truth. But apparently the Republican members didn't buy it-- or just didn't want him in the first place so used this statement as an excuse to say "no" to him.

 

Webster is a nobody and a clown. Zero chance he wins. Also Webster is probably going to lose in 2016 thanks to the Florida redistricting crisis that's going on. Chaffetz at least has some power in the House Republican caucus but I doubt he has a prayer either.

I dont think either will win.

 

Jason Chaffetz? Speaker material?

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I suspect this is the most likely endgame. It also frees Boehner to say "f*** off" to the Freedom Caucus for the near future.

 

Reports are saying McCarthy said he backed out because his party is ungovernable in the house.