Are Two Albatrosses Worse Than One?
After the second ballot, CNN’s Melanie Zanona reported that some of Jim Jordan's opponents have told her that they've been purposely staggering their "no" votes over multiple ballots— a strategy designed to show Jordan's speakership opposition is only growing. Further they were predicting that Jordan’s candidacy would bleed even more support if he kept trying. So this morning, before vote #3, he raised the white flag, accepted the title "speaker designee," whatever the hell that is, and agreed to let McHenry run the show fornow.
Why are they against him? Is he really that different from what their whole Trumpist illiberal party has turned into? Nope… which is why he’s been able to get 200— and then 199— votes. Annie Karni had a more pragmatic reason why some Republicans don’t support him for the speakership: he’ll cost them votes, enough votes to lose the slim majority they’re clinging to. Swing district Republicans worry that it will cost them their own seats, which helps explain why all the Long Island Republicans— except Santos, who won’t be running for reelection anyway— voted against Jordan, as did Westchester/Rockland counties’ Mike Lawler. What makes less sense is how all (100%) of the swing district Republicans in California— there are 7 of them— bit the bullet and voted for him.
Karni started her report in Michelle Steel’s district, where there is already a giant billboard up picturing Steel with Trump and Jordan that says “Rep. Steel Supports Extremism.” Biden beat Trump in her district by over 6 points and last year she hung onto her seat by 4.8 points. Kyle Herrig, the executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project said that “Every House Republican who votes for Jim Jordan to be speaker of the House should be held accountable for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his role in the Jan. 6 fake electors plot, and his continued attacks on our democracy.”
The latest round of House Republican infighting has badly damaged the GOP brand. It has left the party leaderless and one chamber of Congress paralyzed for more than two weeks. The chaos is raising the chances that Democrats could win back the majority next year, and it has given them ample ammunition for their campaign narrative, which casts Republicans as right-wing extremists who are unfit to govern.
“It hurts the country; it hurts the Congress; it’s hurting our party,” said Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, one of 18 Republicans who represent districts won by Biden in 2020. “It’s putting us in a bad hole for next November.”
He said his hard-right colleagues who moved to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this month and touched off the intractable scramble to replace him “want to be in the minority. I think they would prefer that. So they can just vote no and just yell and scream all the time.”
Bacon opposed Jordan’s candidacy, but he and other mainstream GOP lawmakers worry that, no matter who is ultimately elected speaker, the Ohio Republican’s nomination has only boosted Democrats’ efforts to tie them to the most hard-right members of their party, placing their seats at risk in 2024.
“Jim Jordan is the poster boy for MAGA extremism,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, said on Tuesday night.
… If Jordan were to prevail— a prospect that appeared less likely on Wednesday after he lost a second ballot— his ascension would confirm concerns among a large swath of voters. Many believe that the GOP is an extreme party that is badly out of step with most of the country, and that the House Republican conference is essentially composed of Trump’s loyal foot soldiers. And if the hard-right lawmaker continues to fail in his bid, it only hardens the view of Republicans as completely incapable of governing.
For mainstream Republicans representing politically competitive districts, the damage may already be done regardless of the outcome of the vote, or how many rounds it takes.
“It’s hard to present yourself as a figure of bipartisan compromise and moderation when you vote for someone who resolutely stands against any bipartisan compromise and is the furthest thing from a moderate a voter can imagine,” said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster.
Democrats have been circulating data from YouGov Blue, a research division for progressive and Democratic clients, that found that 63 percent of respondents in a recent poll said that moderate Republicans should work with Democrats to form a bipartisan governing coalition. Only 37 percent of respondents said those moderate Republicans should only work with other Republicans to elect a new speaker.
Christina Bohannan, a Democrat challenging Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks in a competitive Iowa district, said her opponent’s vote for Jordan on Tuesday “shows her true values and how contrary they are to Iowa values.”
She said that more than 60 percent of Iowans reject Jordan’s position in support of a nationwide abortion ban, and noted that he has never voted for a farm bill, one of the most critical issues for the state.
“This is a real slap in the face to Iowa women for Miller-Meeks to support him,” Bohannan said. “I can’t imagine a clearer example of how Representative Miller-Meeks is selling out Iowans to the extreme members of her party rather than take a more bipartisan position.”
Miller-Meeks on Wednesday switched her vote, backing off her support for Jordan and voting for Representative Kay Granger of Texas, instead. But the damage had already been done.
Some Republicans were admitting as much on Tuesday.
“There’s no way we win the majority if the message we send to the American people is we believe in the election was stolen, and we believe that Jan. 6 was a tour of the Capitol,” Representative Ken Buck, Republican of Colorado, said on CNN. Buck was one of 22 Republicans who refused to vote for Jordan on Wednesday. He has said he is opposed in part because Jordan has been unwilling to say that Biden won the 2020 election.
Representative Jen Kiggans, who represents a Virginia district won by Biden, also was outspoken about her opposition to Jordan.
“Mr. Jordan’s government funding plan has the potential to further cut the defense budget, which is already inadequate,” she said in a video posted on social media. She also voiced concerns about his vote last month against keeping the government open.
… Some Republicans from swing districts said this week that they hoped their voters would be able to separate them from the chaos surrounding their party.
“I am going to be judged by the work that I do, and whoever runs against me is going to be judged based on their experience and livelihood,” said Representative Marc Molinaro of New York, who voted for Jordan and represents a district Biden won in 2020. “I truly believe that at the end of the day, if we’re earnest and honest with the people we represent and authentic in that service, they’ll judge us based on that.”
Apparently, there are GOP incumbents who strongly objected to Team Jordan’s bullying and threatening tactics. Most of yesterday’s “NO” voters came in for right-wing abuse. That wasn’t winning them over to Jordan’s side. Staunch conservative Mike Simpson (R-ID) had a message for Jordan and his arsonist amigos: "Intimidation and threatening tactics do not-- and will not-- work." Jen Kiggans (R-VA) tweeted a similar message: "[T]hreats and intimidation tactics will not change my principles and values."This is what happens when a party gives influence to anti-democracy advocates like Matt Gaetz, let alone ignoramuses like Marjorie Traitor Greene and Lauren Boebert. Not to worry though-- McHenry is a radical right nut case as well, as the idiot Democrats who are going to legitimize him are about to find out. He's also one of Congress' most corrupt members, but that never bothers anyone much other than a handful of progressive reformers.