Jim Jordan, you’re up!

| 4:26 pm EDT October 13, 2023
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House Republicans have now nominated Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House. But he only got 124 Republican votes. This is more than the 113 Republican votes that Steve Scalise got before ultimately having to drop out, but not much more.

Now we wait to see whether Jordan can put together the necessary 218 votes (or 217, based on absences) in order to become Speaker of the House. It’s possible, but the math doesn’t look good for him. Jordan reportedly acted like a complete clown in private meetings after Scalise was nominated, and now some of Scalise’s allies are hinting that they’ll try to sink Jordan’s chances.

And so the House Republican “Idiot Game of Thrones” continues. We’re all hoping that Jim Jordan fails to become Speaker, that the position remains vacant for awhile, and that the Republicans in toss-up races get nervous and start talking with House Democrats about a compromise.

But if House Republicans really want to go with a Speaker of the House as scandal-plagued as Jim Jordan, then so be it. It would bring all of Jordan’s embarrassing and ugly scandals back to the forefront. Republicans would just be handing the Democrats the House majority in 2024.