Late yesterday afternoon. Moscow Marge activated her motion to vacate the chair, kind of a surprise. The motion was immediately and overwhelmingly tabled, 359-43 with 196 Republicans and 163 Democrats voting against Greene’s crackpot nihilism. Just 10 Republicans joined her (32 Democrats refused to back MAGA Mike and voted against tabling the motion, mostly progressives, like Pramila, AOC, Cori, Jamaal, Delia, Summer…). There were 7 Democrats who voted “Present.” The 11 Republicans who voted, in effect, to oust MAGA Mike:
Moscow Marge (R-GA)
Paul Gosar (R-AZ)
Thomas Massie (R-KY)
Warren Davidson (R-OH)
Alex Mooney (R-WV)
Barry Moore (R-AL)
Victoria Spartz (R-IN)
Chip Roy (R-TX)
Eli Crane (R-AZ)
Eric Burlison (R-MO)
Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
After Wednesday’s the last votes, Greene got up and announced she was filing her motion to vacate to a loud chorus of boos, mostly from Republicans. She hissed back denouncing them as part of “the uniparty.” Scalise immediately moved to table her motion. She quoted Hakeem Jeffries who had told 60 Minutes that “‘Even though we’re in the minority, we effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide a majority of the votes necessary to get things done. Those are just the facts.’ Speaker Johnson’s tenure is defined by one self-serving characteristic: when given a choice between advancing Republican priorities or allied with the Democrats to preserve his own personal power, Johnson regularly chooses to ally himself with Democrats.”
What triggered Greene yesterday was that MAGA Mike never responded to her 3 demands: no more aid to Ukraine, only votes on bills that a majority of Republicans support; and defunding the DoJ investigation and prosecution of Trump (approved— probably instigated— by Trump). After the vote, Johnson said, “Hopefully this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined 118th Congress. It's regrettable.”
Massie said that MAGA Mike is now a lame duck speaker because “[b]ecause those 12 (11) aren't going to miraculously decide on Jan. 3 to vote for him.”
