comment: >
  
  This got me to look up recent Republican Speakers:
  
  Newt Gingrich, the guy who made government shutdowns a thing and fought so hard against Healthcare Reform because he was bought and sold by Health Insurance companies (sure glad we didn't figure this huge problem out 30 fucking years ago, thanks guys). Oh and he's left 2 wives dying of cancer to remarry. That happened twice.
  Dennis Hastert - an actual child molester who was still better than Newt Gingrich
  John Boehner - fought everything Obama tried to accomplish, especially healthcare. Retired to become a cannabis lobbyist, after fighting against any reform on drugs his whole career.
  Paul Ryan - big fan of Ayn Rand and Rage Against the Machine...without a hint of irony. Fought hard to make sure Foxconn got the largest tax breaks possible for creating the fewest possible jobs and really touted this as a success story until it completely blew up (what would you expect with Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, and Trump working the deal). My hope is that one day the people of Wisconsin can appreciate him the way the people of North Haverbrook appreciated Lyle Lanley.
context: The hits keep rolling in. I demand a recount! >
  
  
  One for Martin, two for Martin. Would you like another recount? >
  
  How many for Bart? >
  
  None. I do have a write-in for "Bort", though. >
  
  21 Republican rebels.  Needle has not even moved despite 'negotiations'. >
  
  What are their demands? More M&Ms? >
  
  Its been reported elsewhere they want to jump the pecking order for important committee assignments, defang the House ethics committee, all new spending to be offset by equal cuts to social programs rather than new taxes or cost saving measures, a guarantee the debt ceiling bill wont be 'clean' so they can force through all kinds of nonsense under the threat of a shutdown, to be able to bypass McCarthy to introduce bills straight to the floor, and a single vote threshold to remove McCarthy as speaker if he crosses any one of them. >
  
  Wow...that makes me want to vomit. >
  
  Don't forget they also want as much media exposure as they can get and no amount of concessions will get them more than they are right now blocking everything >
  
  Looking more and more like a handful of Republicans will have to vote with the dems then >
  
  Let the Republicans burn. No concessions beyond AOCs suggestions. >
  
  A handful of dems are saying that they are willing to support a compromise candidate, but that the cost will be high and that interested Republicans need to have their conversations with Jeffries if they want to get anywhere >
  
  GOP: “Jeffries!! I’ve come to bargain.”
  GOP: “Jeffries!! I’ve come to bargain.”
  GOP: “Jeffries!! I’ve come to bargain.” >
  
  Thats really good. >
  
  So he agreed to lower the threshold for a recall vote for the Speaker to... one. One single congressman can force the Speaker to defend his title at any time. And it return for this insane concession, he got... exactly 0 new votes. 
  Good Job Kevin. Absolutely killing it out there. >
  
  Democrats should recall him every day just for the hell of it. >
  
  They'd only have to do it once, that's the hilarious part. Every dem + 5 pissed off conservatives and McCarthy's out. These concessions are so moronic he truly doesn't deserve to be the Speaker because he's just not smart enough. >
  
  Not smart enough but certainly desperate enough >
  
  I think something getting lost in this is that Kevin McCarthy simply isn't a great politician. I saw one quote that said his support was an inch deep and a mile wide. He doesn't have anyone truly loyal to him. His support is superficial.
  Boehner was a better politician and he couldn't keep the clownshow together with a 30+ seat majority. Even if McCarthy makes it to speaker, he has no shot. >
  
  Boehner was a giant sack of shit, but even HE saw the writing on the wall and got out before shit really went sideways.  I hope he's got permanent sunburn, but that motherfucker has been sippin' margaritas and enjoying his life while the GOP he left behind is busy trying to burn the country down. >
  
  I remember when Boehner went off stage from the loonies and said “I didn’t sign up for going up against the president.” He at least had some awareness of how fudged up the House was becoming and stepped down. >
  
  That's actually really nice to read. I remember he and Obama worked on 2 major omnibus bills ("Grand Bargin") which would have given both sides major wins. Boehner's House Tea Party members killed that for America. >
  
  He's a republican. I don't understand why he doesn't just claim victory despite losing. >
  
  Well he did already move into the Speaker’s office… >
  
  This has to be a joke >
  
  It's not. Gaetz sends letter to Architect of the Capitol asking why McCarthy is occupying Speaker’s office >
  
  I saw somewhere else that he had to vacate his previous office because his old job -- House Minority Leader -- has already been replaced. So I guess he had to put his crap somewhere. >
  
  if he did have to vacate his old office, then it's bold of him to assume he was going to get the Speaker's office. >
  
  If stuffs still in boxes, it's not that bad. They're just using an empty office to hold boxes. Right? :p >
  
  It depends on how confidential the documents in those boxes are. 
  If they are super top secret, i know a basement he can put it in. >
  
  Fucking Gaetz voted for Trump lmao >
  
  Beavis and Butthead gonna beavis and butthead >
  
  I always though he looked like Lord John Whorfin of the Red Lectroids myself. >
  
  Would that mean  Boebert is John Big Booty? >
  
  Big-boot-TAY!
  ^(...frickin' monkeyboys) >
  
  As of now even other Republicans are calling to engage with Democrats if nothing else as a negotiating tactic. McCarthy seems to think complete concession to these twenty is the only thing he can do but it’s not working so far. >
  
  The concessions with these extremists will never end. Even if he becomes speaker he can't accomplish anything without the democrats help. >
  
  He conceded to allow any single member of the House to bring up a recall vote against him. He's going to conceed to all sorts of things that compromise the integrity of the institution and then get tossed in the trash once the next session actually begins. >
  
  I don't even understand why he would concede that. Even if he wins it'll be two months before we're back here again. >
  
  You misspelled weeks.
  …and I just misspelled days. >
  
  That's a weird way to spell hours >
  
  Wow! I’ve never seen minutes spelled like that >
  
  You guys suck at spelling the word seconds. >
  
  You're all correct. After all, what is a month but a whole lot of days, hours, minutes and seconds? >
  
  While highly amusing, this is really a fight between the hard hard right and the rest and what they are showing is the extreme right is not going to give an inch. McCarthy gave a bunch of concession to them last night and the last few days, they are getting most of what they want, but they want ALL. They are making a show that the GOP must be an extreme right party or nothing else. >
  
  Exactly. The Republicans have to decide if they want to be controlled by this handful of nuts or vote for the Dem. Unfortunately I think I know what they will decide. >
  
  Well there is another outcome potentially... They reach over to Dems to back the majority pick, but I don't see that happening unless there are some equally big concessions.
  It would also look bad for every dem to have to explain constantly why they backed this asshole and the tomfuckery he's surely going to do. >
  
  
  They reach over to Dems to back the majority pick
  
  Considering what McCarthy has been proudly proclaiming they will do with the Republican controlled House, the Dems have zero incentive to allow that to happen. Have the Republicans put forth another candidate, a candidate more to the Dems' liking, and then maybe they'll make some progress. >
  
  The dems would be foolish to trust anything a republican promised.  139 Republican house members votes against certifying the electors in 2021.  The majority of them. >
  
  They can get concessions written into the House rules so it isn't just his word.
  It would be worth making a deal with McCarthy to get concessions along the lines of: 1) you'll let us get votes on our bills instead of burying them without a vote, 2) you change the rules to let us get stuff out of committee, 3) add a recall provision that allows the minority leader to recall McCarthy if he tries to remove these concessions by changing the rules after he is Speaker.
  It's not like the Dems get the House back if McCarthy goes down. That just means another Republican will eventually get voted in. It's a major win if the Dems can get a rules change that allows forcing a vote on bills despite a GOP speaker, aka repealing the House filibuster. Then e.g. we can force Republicans to actually vote against a higher minimum wage, cannabis legalization, and other popular bills instead of these things just getting "filibustered" forever and also opens the door for picking off a few moderate Republicans on bills. As it stands, it doesn't matter if the Dems have enough moderate support for a bill, McCarthy can singlehandedly block it from reaching a vote to deny Biden a win.
  Weed likely has a majority in the House but would never get a vote because the Speaker can prevent a vote and McCarthy doesn't want Biden to get a big win like "the President who finally legalized weed." So this isn't hypothetical. >
  
  Good news everyone, it's just as funny as the first six times >
  
  I think it’s getting exponentially funnier >
  
  It's all a joke to the MAGA Republicans. Matt Gaetz just voted for Trump as Speaker. Marjorie Taylor Greene can be seen in this video laughing and ribbing Gaetz, while other GOP colleagues laugh too.^[1] It should be noted that MTG voted for McCarthy.
  National Security matters can not be addressed until Congress is seated, but the far-right MAGAs are treating national security and governance as a joke. MAGA Republicans are a national security risk.^[2]
  MAGA Republicans don't care about veterans. Congress can't follow through on previous legislation, that was passed under Speaker Pelosi's stewardship, to provide care and benefits for veterans.^[3]
  
  1) Twitter Video - Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) votes for Donald Trump for Speaker of the House.
  2) The Bulwark - House Is Paralyzed Without a Speaker—Creating National Security Risks and a Shadow Shutdown
  3) Military Times - House Speaker impasse hurting national security, vet lawmakers warn >
  
  Please post in conservatives >
  
  you will be blocked and your account will be shutdown.
  believe me, i’ve tried to explain some things over there. >
  
  How do they rectify the glaring hypocrisy over there when they complain relentlessly about free speech and censorship? >
  
  That the point their political platform is facism >
  
  The only thing these people want is to block McCarthy just to fuck with the GOP and show their fan base that they are "draining the swamp". They don't care about these promises, all their want is to make the mainstream GOP suffer. They want McCarthy's head for the sake of it, not because of policy differences. >
  
  No matter the motive, the result is the same, Dems smiling ear to ear and having a great time with it >
  
  I'd trade it for a functioning house of congress, but it's hilarious at the moment. 
  I do worry that these 20ish radicals are going to get a fuckton of concessions and push the whole R party to the right even more.
  If there's one thing the Republican voter base loves, it's a show of STRENGTH. >
  
  I'll take no congress over a Republican controlled congress any day. >
  
  Government default is bad though. Like actually really really bad. But if it weren't for that... >
  
  assuming they werent going to let it happen anyway? they've either tried or successfully forced shutdowns every chance they got. having a speaker seated has nothing to do with whether they will inhibit the functioning of the legislature >
  
  Hahaha. These clowns have made my week. This is fun to watch. >
  
  Time for 5 moderate GOPers in Biden districts to join Dems to form a functioning government. >
  
  I’m surprised the newly elected Republicans out of New York aren’t being swayed to side with the Dems on this. >
  
  Well one of em is such a huge liar I don't think Dems would entertain trying to sway. >
  
  Shit, I forgot about Santos. >
  
  
  Shit, I forgot about Santos.
  
  That's the Reverend Doctor Santos, General of the Hudson to you! >
  
  You forgot Admiral, King and Pope >
  
  Emperor of the North Pole. >
  
  Voice of the North Wind, Necromancer to the court of Gea-Xle. >
  
  First of his name, breaker of chains >
  
  I came up with a list of possible and equally viable Speaker alternatives for the Republicans to vote for:
  The preserved head of Richard Nixon in a jar
  Kevin Sorbo's PR manager
  Bill, my coworker
  The MyPillow guys crack dealer
  The skeleton of Ronald Reagan 
  A discarded McDonalds sack soaked in dumpster juice
  Triumph the Insult Comic Dog >
  
  
  The preserved head of Richard Nixon in a jar
  
  Well he just seems overqualified. Richard Nixon was quite effective in both houses of Congress, and considerably more ethical than the average 2022 GOP Candidate.
  I assume the remaining few percentage points of his biomass still contain collectively more brain cells then most of the GOP Caucus. Probably would be too liberal for them though. >
  
  Is this with or without Agnew’s robo-body?
  I’m only behind this if it is with. >
  
  That just feels like running up the score on McCarthy, if we include the undead remains of two competent and mildly evil GOP Legislators. >
  
  This is William Rehnquist.  They buried me alive.  I have Wi-fi, but no oxygen >
  
  In the news, they talked about how it went to some 133 rounds in the 1800s, and it went to 9 rounds in the 1920s.
  But the difference is, in the 1800s and the 1920s, they didn't have a live stream feed of this. They didn't have social media. And they didn't have late night shows like Steven Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, etc.
  It's so much worse and so much more humiliating to go through multiple rounds of losing the vote in the 2020s, with how everything has changed, especially the technology.  
  It's like McCarthy never once considered this. He must have been thinking, well, they went 133 rounds and 9 rounds before, it can't be that bad for me, can it? No McCarthy, it's the 2020s, losing just 3 rounds looks really, really, bad for you, with modern technology and modern entertainment shows, nevermind the 7 rounds you lost already. >
  
  The 133 rounds happened in 1855 in the runup to the Civil War. And 4 years later it was something like 44 rounds. If it goes beyond 9 rounds, news reports are going to start talking about the Civil War. >
  
  no, first they’re going to start talking about the great depression because there’s been Bear market talk for months now and no true recession has occurred. 
  When he gets to rounds 20+ they’ll start comparing him to the civil war 44 >
  
  Nah, what they should be talking about is the upcoming/ongoing party realignment.  Weak coalitions lead to vote failures. >
  
  "Okay fine. You can have pictures of Hunter Biden's penis. Please just make me speaker now."
  GOP: " No. Now we want to play with it." rubs hands together >
  
  “Do nothing Democrats” LOL >
  
  It's true! They're doing nothing but laughing at this fucking mess 😂 >
  
  I know this is technically bad for our country but I'm enjoying this so much >
  
  Ehh, if this end will start getting investigations into Hunter’s 🍆 and no laws will be passed anyway, letting the gop hurt itself is probably a good thing >
  
  They either hurt each other or start working together to hurt trans kids, women, immigrants, POC, workers, and students. >
  
  This guy gets it >
  
  8th time’s the charm? >
  
  I thought it was the 9th time? >
  
  If at first you don't succeed then try 10 more times. That's the dark souls strat! >
  
  Now I'll just imagine a red YOU DIED screen every time he fails to win. >
  
  The narcisitic attention whores have backed themselves into a corner by vowing to never vote for McCarthy. They have no choice but to keep going now.
  On the other side, McCarthy has done the same by vowing to not bow out. Now he has to keep going. >
  
  right... if both keep their word we don't have a house. Unless some rogue GOP moderate shenanigans with the dems. >
  
  "But with the vote still underway, Rep. Byron Donalds, Republican of Florida, had already secured 10 votes."
  Byron Donalds ... are they sure it's not Trump in disguise? >
  
  If so, that’s an impressive disguise! >
  
  Negotiating with domestic terrorists kinda doesn't work. >
  
  
  U.S. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy lost a seventh vote for House speaker, despite agreeing to the demands of far-right opponents.
  
  This is what people have to understand.  The MAGA wing isn't interested in governing.  The fact that they still voted against McCarthy despite him giving in to their demands means they just want to paralyze the government.  Paralyzing the government will eventually become deadly serious.  The MAGA nuts are doing exactly what their master Putin ordered them to do. >
  
  Literally negotiating with terrorists. Everyone's laughing but they're literally holding the government hostage. Literal fascists now have the power to lead the GOP by the nose. This shit isn't funny anymore. >
  
  
  This shit isn't funny anymore.
  
  I completely agree.  It's terrifying.  The consequences could be dire if this situation continues for months. >
  
  I hope they hate this.  This is what it was like living during the Obama years and seeing them meet McConnell halfway only for him to step back and say "okay meet me halfway again".  And by the time any bill passed, it was a shadow of its former self and got no extra votes for the effort. >
  
  Mnuchin entered the room >
  
  It’s like negotiating with a bunch of rabid monkeys who toss their excrement at you.   Welcome, Kevin, to the kind of scorched-earth tactics we Dems have been dealing with for decades.  PS. We don’t give a fuck, deal with it. >
  
  Yes! It's beautiful to see the GOP falling in their own traps. >
  
  At this point the only way McCarthy wins is by creating a "Assistant Speaker" position and naming one of the Freedom Caucus, then only serving as a figure head. >
  
  Assistant to the Speaker >
  
  Pulled up Reddit. Saw the top article was “McCarthy loses 6th House speaker vote.” 
  Refreshed the page. Immediately saw it replaced with “McCarthy loses 7th House speaker vote.”. 
  Hilarious.
  Edit: and another one.
  Edit 2: There’s just so much winning I can’t keep up. >
  
  If I were him, I'd rescind all the concessions made up till this point since they haven't done him any good. They just keep moving the goalposts every time he agrees. And if he keeps making these concessions and they eventually decide it's enough, then everyone will know McCarthy is a spineless fuckwad who is beholden to the handful of extremists in his party. >
  
  But he needs 218 votes to win. There's nowhere he's going to get those 20 votes from.  He's threatened and harassed Democrats for years... they're never going to vote for him. 
  Even if he steps down. The next Republican candidate will have the same problems.  It's time for the 200 Republicans to call a vote and throw the dissenters out of the party and strip them of all assignments in the house and in the party and strip them of all campaign funds. But that will never happen. >
  
  Realistically, outside of just blind party loyalty, whats stopping 6-8 moderate republicans from voting Jeffries and making a statement to the Freedom Caucus that all of these games have consequences.  Its not like electing him as speaker would change the balance of power in the house any major amount, but it would be a hell of a message from the moderates in the Republican party >
  
  They would be commiting career suicide. They would be primaried like Liz Cheney. >
  
  Maybe or maybe not.  They could go on Fox and say it was just a tactic to outmaneuver the Fascist Caucus. And if they got McCarthy elected by threatening to vote Jeffries it would make them look like geniuses. >
  
  What an idiot.   MAGA people are terrorists.
  Terrorists never cave on just a cookie.   They'll want the whole jar.   Every time. >
  
  He kissed these idiots asses for years so he can be speaker and this is the result, like keeping a scorpion as a pet and expecting it not to sting you. >
  
  What an absolutely delicious way to start the New Year. There should be no question going forward how much of a dumpster fire the GOP is. Holy freakin’ Arceus. >
  
  Holy Arceus? Like… the Pokémon? >
  
  As real as any other god or deity out there. >
  
  Talk about not taking a hint. >
  
  Trump loses yet another election. >
  
  Seems like he needs to step down, and not seek the speaker role. It was funny for a day,  maybe two, but come on. If you can't get the votes, then you can't be the speaker. Let someone who can get the votes get the position and get to work. >
  
  Nobody can get the votes >
  
  Exactly. The 20 holdout are essentially a party on their own. They won’t work with the remaining GOP nor the DEM. Only way a speaker can be nominated is negotiation between the dems and not crazy GOP, which is how a functional democracy should work. But at this early stage, ain’t going to happen.
  And Dem wants nothing to do with Kevin, so they will have to nominate someone else. >
  
  If they managed to dig out a semi-sane republican, the closest one to actually being a moderate, then I imagine a share of democrats would go absent in order to allow that person over the quorum.  Too bad the GOP decided their best course of action was to ostracize and force out anyone who had integrity despite misguided views. How many are left that voted to impeach trump? Like 1? >
  
  what do dens gain from ending this? why not let the gop divide themselves further? a broken gop is a massive win for democrats. let the 20 divide and create their own party then democrats have majority. >
  
  The GOP party needs to break. This is a good way to widen the cracks. It is an obsolete and obstructionist party
  Give me one example of good legislation that benefited Americans that Republicans have brought to the table in the past 10.years. >
  
  Whoa there... you don't like your extra 96 cents on your paychecks thanks to the tax reform bill Trump passed?! >
  
  Has he tried an eighth time? That should do the trick. >
  
  Reading the morons hot takes on r/conservative has been an absolute gem. They have no clue who anyone involved is. But if the Dems vote for them, they are clearly the devil. You could trap those idiots into voting for George Soros for Supreme Commander of the Universe if the Dems just say they hate him lol >
  
  I know it’s fun to gang up in McCarthy for not being able to get the votes he needs, but it is absolutely wild that his opposition hasn’t taken the deal he’s offering lol 
  It’d be as terrible for getting things done as we all think it would be, but all these House members who love attention would have so much power compared to previous houses. >
  
  Gee. It’s like the entire GOP isn’t negotiating in good faith. There are just 21 GOP members who are being open about it.