The Republican House Caucus Clown Car continues to stumble (can a clown car stumble?) from disaster to disaster with Kevin McCarthy losing three more votes and lost another supporter with 21 not voting for him. It was so embarrassing that when the House came back at 8:00 o’clock from their own requested break, they immediately broke again until noon tomorrow saying that talks “are going well”. So anxious were they to get out of there before they were embarrassed any further, they allowed votes to be changed after the voting clock had already run out. Bull hockey!
In order to get the country out of the chaos created by the clown car, I have a proposal. First, the Democratic leadership should approach from 6 to 10 senior, moderate (there actually are some) to vote for Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker of the House. In exchange, Jeffries would promise to appoint a Republican Whip and rational — or as rational as possible — Republicans as committee chairs and to ignore the so-called Hastert rule which says that no legislation is brought to a vote that cannot pass with your party and your party alone. The rule shouldn’t exist to begin with and the idea of a Congressional rule put in place by a former Speaker who has since served time in prison for sexual misconduct is more than just ludicrous. That means that Jeffries would allow Republican sponsored legislation to reach the floor. That would serve to take Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, and the self-styled “Freedom Caucus” out of the picture. It got so ridiculous that Matt Gaetz who remains under federal investigation for sex trafficking minors, wrote the Capitol architect demanding to know why McCarthy was being allowed to move into the Speaker’s office suite.
So, could such an arrangement work? Yes. As an experiment in bipartisan governance, it might just be effective, efficient, productive, and in the best interests of the nation. Oh there would be more details beyond those mentioned here to be worked out before it could be done. But could such an arrangement be agreed to given the current dysfunction in the Republican Party in the House.
In contrast, President Joe Biden and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell were together in Kentucky finally announcing that a bridge linking Cincinnati Ohio and Kentucky originally designed to handle 80,000 vehicles/day and now handling 180,000 vehicles/day is going to be replaced. Finally.
The FDA has announced it will allow pharmacies to dispense the abortion medication mifepristone to patients. Mifepristone can be used along with another medication, misoprostol, to end a pregnancy. The move comes days after a new Justice Department legal opinion declared that federal law allows the US Postal Service to deliver the abortion drugs -- a move the Biden administration believes could help protect access to abortion in states that have enacted bans following the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision.
Ukraine has claimed a string of successful artillery attacks on Russian barracks in the first days of the year, asserting that it hit newly drafted men and other soldiers where they were sleeping or congregating, killing or wounding more than 1,000. They also claim to have shot down 100% of recent attacks by Russian (Iranian) drones and Russian missiles. Ukrainian artillery targets Russian soldiers by pinpointing their phone signals. Despite the deadly results, Russian troops keep defying a ban on cellphone use near the front.
George Santos, George Santos, George Santos. Now we’re not even certain that’s his real name. May he soon achieve the oblivion he and his mentor so richly deserve.
The chaos suggests that Republican leadership does not have the skills it needs to govern.