2022 Midterm Election MEGATHREAD

[celedhring]

Looks like he's losing the tenth vote...

[garbon]

Saw they said this is now most protracted bid since 1859. Bringing us back to the antebellum period.

[Sheilbh]

That's kind of a whole different discussion, but yeah in a Parliamentary system the Speaker is nominally an apolitical position.  It goes to a partisan politician, but they don't vote unless to break a tie.  The equivalent to the "majority leader" is the important position.

But then again in a Parliamentary system you would whip this vote and call another election if you don't have majority support all while kicking out the recalcitrant members from running again.

Yeah very different system - although here electing a speaker is done by secret ballots until someone has 50%+1, so whipping doesn't really work because you can't actually know how anyone's voting.

[Josquius]

Looks like he's losing the tenth vote...

So, what. Merca just doesn't have a government now?

[OttoVonBismarck]

Uh, no--our President is still in office and can do quite a bit.

Without the House we can pass no legislation of any kind, however. It will become a serious problem if it goes long enough, we start hitting must-pass budgetary etc bills.

[Jacob]

Uh, no--our President is still in office and can do quite a bit.

Without the House we can pass no legislation of any kind, however. It will become a serious problem if it goes long enough, we start hitting must-pass budgetary etc bills.

So let's say they fail to elect someone as Speaker and we get to a must-pass budgetary bill... could the Democrats theoretically support McCarthy, but with some sort of provision where they can shank him at will after the must-pass has been passed? Some sort of "one person can challenge the speaker" type thing, like what the GOP "rebels" have demanded?

[OttoVonBismarck]

Sure, anything is possible. I doubt the Speaker elections go that long, for what it's worth. You can also use a majority vote to change the House rule requiring a Speaker election be completed before any other business--and half ass someway to run legislation through. The issue is without the House's officers selected the mechanics of wrangling legislation would be really hard.

[Razgovory]

So are we just waiting for McCarthy to withdraw now?  Is that the only realistic option?

[Valmy]

So Amash is there wanting to run things like a state lege and allow the Democrats to amend and propose legislation.

Hell they should vote for him. Surely they could find 6 Republicans crazy enough to go along with it.

I am kidding...mostly.

[OttoVonBismarck]

The scuttlebutt is McCarthy was closing in on a deal that would reduce the number of objectors down to less than 10...which still is not low enough. We also are not sure of the reality of this deal or if it's just wishful thinking by his camp. I believe the hope is if they were able to halve the objectors, you can then lean on a few specific ones to try and work out personal arrangements...somehow get down to only 4 objectors, maybe get some of them to agree to vote "Present" instead of for a different person etc.

It's unclear if there is ultimately going to be enough movement for McCarthy to get in, but I think we'll have at least a few more days of McCarthy trying before we see any major movement to a different candidate by the caucus.

[viper37]

The scuttlebutt is McCarthy was closing in on a deal that would reduce the number of objectors down to less than 10...which still is not low enough. We also are not sure of the reality of this deal or if it's just wishful thinking by his camp. I believe the hope is if they were able to halve the objectors, you can then lean on a few specific ones to try and work out personal arrangements...somehow get down to only 4 objectors, maybe get some of them to agree to vote "Present" instead of for a different person etc.

It's unclear if there is ultimately going to be enough movement for McCarthy to get in, but I think we'll have at least a few more days of McCarthy trying before we see any major movement to a different candidate by the caucus.

Can the Republicans hold the vote to eject the protestors from their party if it keeps going?

[Habbaku]

The scuttlebutt is McCarthy was closing in on a deal that would reduce the number of objectors down to less than 10...which still is not low enough. We also are not sure of the reality of this deal or if it's just wishful thinking by his camp. I believe the hope is if they were able to halve the objectors, you can then lean on a few specific ones to try and work out personal arrangements...somehow get down to only 4 objectors, maybe get some of them to agree to vote "Present" instead of for a different person etc.

It's unclear if there is ultimately going to be enough movement for McCarthy to get in, but I think we'll have at least a few more days of McCarthy trying before we see any major movement to a different candidate by the caucus.

Can the Republicans hold the vote to eject the protestors from their party if it keeps going?

  What would ejecting them from their party solve? They'd still be in Congress.

[Admiral Yi]

  What would ejecting them from their party solve? They'd still be in Congress.
[/quote]

It would be harder to wrangle for committeee assisgnments.

Might be ineresting to know what Sanders and Systema (??) got for assignments.

[celedhring]

That's kind of a whole different discussion, but yeah in a Parliamentary system the Speaker is nominally an apolitical position.  It goes to a partisan politician, but they don't vote unless to break a tie.  The equivalent to the "majority leader" is the important position.

But then again in a Parliamentary system you would whip this vote and call another election if you don't have majority support all while kicking out the recalcitrant members from running again.

Yeah very different system - although here electing a speaker is done by secret ballots until someone has 50%+1, so whipping doesn't really work because you can't actually know how anyone's voting.

Here is done by secret ballot too, but you just need to get the most votes, not a majority of parliament. Then the next four vote-getters get elected as deputy speakers.

[Zanza]

The GOP needs to ask itself what the point of having people that see government dysfunction as a feature, not a bug as representatives is. They might have the (R) behind their name, but they do not actually further the goals of the larger Republican party. Maybe next time they should send sane people in primaries against these clowns and not let them run on the Republican ticket.