House Republicans are now waving the white flag at Hakeem Jeffries
House Republican Mike Rogers is now publicly asking Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries what concessions he wants in exchange for the Democrats helping to elect a Speaker who’s not Jim Jordan. So we’re at that stage of Republican collapse.
Once you see that your opponent is weak enough to offer these kinds of concessions, you then know that your opponent is weak enough to give up even more than what’s being offered. So Jeffries will likely respond by telling Rogers to make Jeffries the Speaker, or to pick a compromise Speaker from outside Congress who’s not beholden to either side. Then we’ll see if Rogers is desperate enough to accept that counteroffer.
If Rogers says no I’m not willing to go that far, the Speaker has to be some inoffensive House Republican, then Jeffries would respond by seeking massive concessions. Like, the end of the House Republican agenda. And an ironclad deal that allows Democrats to oust that Speaker.
Or Jeffries could just leave Rogers and his allies twisting, and see how much more desperate they get next week. But if Jeffries does this, he’ll risk the possibility that House Republicans will find their way to a Speaker on their own, which would leave Democrats with nothing.
Remember, in politics the winning strategy is not the most “aggressive sounding” one.
The winning strategy is whatever results in your side gaining the most power (Democrats want power so they can do good, Republicans want power so they can steal money, but both sides’ goal is to gain power to begin with). Sometimes that consists of letting the other side save face and claim compromise, in exchange for you getting the actual victory.
Jeffries’ job is not to stick it to House Republicans so those of you sitting at home can feel a rush of adrenaline. That’s not a winning strategy. Jeffries’ job is to get House Democrats the most power and influence possible out of this situation.
This is one of those scenarios where the people inside the walls of Congress know what’s going on in a lot more detail than we do. So if you trust Jeffries (and Pelosi) in general, then you have to trust they’ll make the smartest decision in this particular situation.
Regardless of how this goes from here, House Republicans are now at a point of collapse where they’re talking openly about a power sharing agreement with the opposition, even though Republicans have a five seat majority. That’s just a stunning level of weakness.
And this isn’t because somebody died or had to resign and they lost their majority control that way. House Republicans have held onto the alleged sex trafficker and the alleged identity thief, and they still don’t have the votes to function. That shouldn’t be possible. Yet here we are. The Republican Party is just that much of a joke.
It’s tricky to predict precisely how this will play out from here. But the one thing that’s for certain is that this will only get even worse for House Republicans as the weekend goes on.
