McCarthy is out. Scalise is out. Jordan is out. Who is left that could possibly get enough votes to become Speaker of the House?

As I said yesterday, if the Republicans don’t pull their act together and get 217 votes before hitting the House floor next time, we may well end up with Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker – at which point, every Republican should lose their seat. This situation has moved from principle to parody, and it has to come to an end now. The GOP caucus isn’t exactly selling themselves as the adults in the room who should be trusted with the checkbook at the moment.

But who is left to run for Speaker? There are plenty of people with enough ego to think they can run the caucus. Apparently, even Matt Gaetz, who kicked off this entire debacle, is now considering running for Speaker as well.

The good news for him
is he will have the support of every Democrat in the House. https://t.co/R3HuEXYQeb

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 21, 2023

*snort* Now THERE’S a non-starter. Gaetz would get approximately eight to twenty votes, and that would be it. As much as I appreciate the pointed joke, there is no way that the Democrats step out of line to elect Matt Gaetz. So, who is ACTUALLY left to run for Speaker? Several news outlets have been coming up with potential lists. Only one of the names, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, has even attempted to run for Speaker previously, when he was considered a “dark horse” candidate well behind Scalise and Jordan. Who are the other names?

With such long-established, high-profile Republicans falling flat, several much less well-known members of Congress will now try their luck. Reps. Kevin Hern (R-OK), Jack Bergman (R-MI), Austin Scott (R-GA), Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared their candidacies Friday afternoon after the GOP voted to drop Jordan. So did Tom Emmer (R-MN), who’s currently the House Majority Whip — No. 3 in GOP leadership. More may follow.

Other outlets are essentially coming up with the same group, with some other additions, like Jodey Arrington of Texas and Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, and Pete Sessions of Texas. And there still is a small but vocal group that just wants to empower Patrick McHenry, the current Speaker pro tem, to hang on to the job until January.

Now, look over these names carefully. Before this week, had you even heard of half of these people? Even a political watcher like me is looking at this list and saying, who ARE these guys? The only exception on the list is Byron Donalds, but that is because he was a big part of the Speaker fight back in January, and has spent time drawing fire from the left and appearing on news shows ever since. Donalds would certainly be quite a contrast as Speaker, especially considering that Speaker of the House is third in line for the presidency.

However, the truth is that most of the representatives throwing their hats into the ring are looking to raise their profiles for future positions and for fundraising purposes, not because they really WANT to be Speaker. And the unpleasant fact remains that no single person can get as many votes as Kevin McCarthy did back in January, not even with McCarthy backing them, as he backed both Scalise and Jordan. This is a combination of a popularity contest and a power struggle in the pecking order.

We need a serious person who is willing to make the hard calls to be Speaker at this moment. I think we had that in Kevin McCarthy, but thanks to Matt Gaetz’s purity tests, here we are. The GOP does not have a large majority, the caucus is sharply divided the way that the country is divided, and at the rate we’re going, Republicans may be having their asses handed to them in fall 2024, and then Hakeem Jeffries WILL be Speaker. If the point is to keep that from happening, then the House GOP caucus needs to get their shit pulled together and not go back to the floor until the votes are assured for the next Speaker candidate. Or maybe being Speaker should be seen as a punishment, not a privilege.

First prize: a month as speaker

Second prize: two months as speaker https://t.co/qpR5jcqroC

— Sunny McSunnyface (Taylor's Version) (@sunnyright) October 20, 2023

This entire exercise has certainly become a punishment for the Republican voting base, as the caucus finds new and exciting ways to make fools of themselves, while Democrats sit smugly on the other side of the aisle, capable of blissfully ignoring the anti-Semitic craziness coming from their side of the aisle. It’s past time to make the insanity stop, come to grips with reality, and make some hard decisions.

Featured image: Capitol building via Proulain on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license