All hell breaks loose in insane Republican race for Speaker of the House

| 9:09 am EDT October 13, 2023
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Just how chaotically out of control is the Republican House’s attempt at finding a new Speaker? In the short time that will pass between me writing this and you reading it, Jim Jordan could announce that he now has the votes – or he could drop out. Or House Republicans could nominate Attila The Hun. Or they could give up and go home. Anything is possible.

After all, House Republicans nominated Steve Scalise to be the next Speaker, and he dropped out less than a day later. We can’t even measure this in Scaramuccis anymore. Anthony Scaramucci lasted eleven Scalises. You read that right. House Republicans have finally accomplished something: they’ve changed the system of measurement.

All joking aside, this really is a joke. Kevin McCarthy – who just nine days ago was ousted as Speaker – is now reportedly launching a new campaign to become Speaker. Is McCarthy going to be able to get the votes? Probably not. But he has about as bad of a shot as anyone else.

My guess is that we’ll know within the next day or three whether Jim Jordan is going to be able to pull together the votes. If not, McCarthy will take his shot. And if House Republicans can’t unite behind anyone, it’ll become a matter of how long this drags out.

How long will it take House Republicans in toss-up districts to start worrying that they’re going to lose their seats over the Speaker debacle, and decide to vote “present” so that House Democrats can elect Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker? One week? Three weeks? If the House Republicans in toss-up districts start leaning this direction, will the rest of the House Republicans finally unite behind a candidate to keep it from happening? We’ll see.

By the time you read this, House Republicans may well have already pulled together and made Hannibal Lecter the Speaker of the House. But it’s more likely they’ll still be sitting around like doofuses, wondering where it all went wrong, while Matt Gaetz and George Santos throw pies in each other’s faces. The Republican Party is a joke from top to bottom – and we need to take the House majority from them in 2024. Until then we might as well just keep mocking them, loudly, in order to make sure that every persuadable voter out there knows the Republican Party is a joke.