Fox News Dangles Dopey Spin that Hakeem Jeffries Lost the Speaker’s Vote ’17 Times in a Row’

Posted by on October 19, 2023 at 1:45 pm. NO Comments :

After nearly two weeks, the nation is still without a Speaker of the House and a functioning House of Representatives. That’s because the Republican Party is too wrapped up in power struggles and inflamed egos as they try to navigate the treacherous waters of Trump cultism.

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Fox News, Fake News

The efforts by the GOP to offer some semblance of leadership have been pitifully lacking from the day they assumed their razor-thin majority in the House. It took them fifteen rounds of voting to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. He only lasted eight months and has now been ousted by his own members, who can’t seem to find anyone to replace him. It’s the sort of colossal clusterf**k that the GOP is known for. You would think that they might have figured that out by now.

SEE THIS: Squeaker McCarthy Laments Learning that the GOP’s Mission is to ‘Burn the Whole Place Down’

Since McCarthy’s banishment from the post, his lieutenant, Steve Scalise, briefly flirted with idea of succeeding him. Then Jim Jordan, the “legislative terrorist” (as former GOP Speaker John Boehner called him), lost two votes for the speakership. So the post remains unfilled and the Congress is effectively defunct. Which may be an improvement over being operative with a GOP majority.

In the meantime, the Republican Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) is stretching credulity with their excuses for the GOP’s ineptitude. On Fox it isn’t the Republican’s fault that they have failed utterly to exhibit any aptitude for governing. Nope. They are pointing their bony fingers at Democrats who are in the minority. For example, see this exchange between Fox News shills, John Roberts and Jason Chaffetz…

Roberts: If the script were flipped and it was Democrats who were in control of Congress – if [Democratic Leader] Hakeem Jeffries were to be put up for a vote for Speaker, how long do you think it would take to get to 218 votes?
Chaffetz: Well, Hakeem Jeffries has now lost 17 races in a row. So 17 times in a row he’s been put up for Speaker and he’s lost. So he’s kind of already over that threshold. I just don’t think one party is gonna come in and support another party.

Seriously? Does Chaffetz really believe that the party in the minority is somehow deficient if they fail to get a majority of votes? And didn’t he notice that in 13 one of those 17 votes Jeffries got more votes than the Republican? In fact, Jeffries got 100% of his party’s votes on every ballot.

Chaffetz appears to have ignored the premise of Roberts’ question, which assumed a Democratic majority. Roberts had to remind him that his question was intended to point out that Democrats would have quickly elected a Speaker if they were in the position that the Republicans are in now.

For his part, Jordan sought to step aside, at least temporarily, in order to execute the GOP’s “Plan B,” wherein interim Speaker Patrick McHenry would be given enhanced powers and be permitted to rule for a couple of months. Setting aside the question as to whether that is even constitutional, it would be a de facto admission of the Republican Party’s desperation and incompetence as political stewards. Nevertheless, the GOP conference refused to go along and Jordan jumped back into the race saying that…

“We made the pitch to members on the resolution as the way to lower the temperature and get back to work. We decided that wasn’t where we were going to go. I’m still running for Speaker. I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race. But I want to go talk with a few of my colleagues. Particularly I want to talk with the twenty individuals who voted against me so that we can move forward and begin to work for the American people.”

In other words, Jordan wants more time to make more threats that will ultimately lead to more humiliation. Democrats will surely allow Jordan and the Republicans the space to make fools of themselves. Although they would prefer that the GOP agree to a power-sharing solution that would advance the interests of the nation. Unfortunately, the GOP is neither responsible nor smart enough to make that deal.

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