Hopes Fade for a Quick Election of Rep. Steve Scalise for Speaker

The Republican Conference is making its best pitch yet to voters, urging America not to give them a majority again in 2024.

No? Well, how do you explain the utter stupidity of a conference that doesn’t care about the people they’re supposed to be serving and continues to play political games while the world’s peace is threatened? How do you explain the total dysfunction of the entire caucus that continues to prove they are unworthy of serving a great people and a great institution?

At least 20 U.S. citizens are being held in Hamas territory, probably underground in a Hamas-built tunnel (courtesy of Western “humanitarian support) probably being tortured, the women raped — all wondering if anyone in America cares that they’re being held captive by the most ruthless, heartless, band of fanatics ever to walk the earth.

Giving lip service to the hostages while continuing to fundraise off the dysfunction deliberately created to gain a political advantage is unspeakably and obscenely cynical.

House Republicans held a vote to elect a new speaker yesterday. It was won by Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who edged out Ohioan Jim Jordan, 135-88. Congratulations to Mr. Scalise would be premature at this point. He’s a little short of the 218 votes — or a majority of those voting — needed to claim the speakership.

“We need to make sure we’re sending a message to people all throughout the world that the House is open and doing the people’s business,” Scalise told reporters after the conference vote.

“I’ve been a unifier. I’ve been somebody who’s built coalitions throughout my entire career,” he said.

Scalise’s problem is that there are at least a dozen House Republicans who don’t give a crap about “coalitions.” And since it takes only four GOP members to blow up the “coalition,” prospects are not very bright for Scalise to work his “magic” anytime soon.

What makes this exercise in Klown Kar Politics so unnecessary is that Scalise’s opponent for speaker, Jim Jordan, has endorsed Scalise for speaker. He’s even offered to put Scalise’s name in nomination when the vote is held, probably sometime on Thursday.

And they all lived happily ever after, right?

Not hardly.

The Dispatch:

Unwilling to relent, a contingent of lawmakers have said they won’t follow Jordan’s lead. “I’m not switching my vote,” said Rep. Max Miller, a fellow Ohioan. “I’m Jim Jordan all the way.”

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania, and Barry Moore of Alabama all voiced support for Jordan. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina told CNN yesterday she’d back Jordan and expressed frustration that the House didn’t hold a vote yesterday, saying, “The American people want us to get back to work.” Mace was one of the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to eject McCarthy, leaving the House speaker-less for the last week. Additional McCarthy allies, still smarting from his ouster, are less than enthusiastic about a Scalise speakership—McCarthy maintained an icy relationship with the majority leader, excluding him from his inner circle.

Some of the Republicans who removed McCarthy, including the ringleader Rep. Matt Gaetz, have thrown their support behind Scalise. “Long live Speaker Scalise,” Gaetz said yesterday, in a ringing endorsement. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee also voiced support for the Louisiana Republican.

For all intents and purposes, Jim Jordan is politically dead. So I put it to you, PJ Media readers: What are all these Republicans doing voting for someone who’s dead already?

So why are they doing it?

“Some of it is, are they doing this just so that they can continue their publicity campaign of being the real conservatives who are constantly betrayed by the leadership, who are the fake conservatives and the establishment that they hate?” said Matt Glassman, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute.

Hamas may not understand democracy and the ins and outs of the inner workings of the House. But they understand chaos pretty well. And you can bet the Hamas leadership is almost as pleased watching what’s happening in the House as they were watching all those videos of Israelis being executed.