The Republican race for Speaker of the House is almost beyond belief. After tossing out Kevin McCarthy, the first speaker Republicans elected in January after they won the majority, they’re now ripping themselves apart finding anyone to replace him. Not that there haven’t been willing candidates. But last week the GOP caucus shot down a willing Steve Scalise, then a more-than-willing Jim Jordan. So today, a majority of the majority chose candidate #3, Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer, to stand before the House. But within hours of his victory, the lead story on CNN’s website, in sync with other major news organizations, said there was a backlash and it was fast and furious.
Emmer had won in the closed-door GOP caucus by only 117 to 97. Based on the chaos of the past week, it was obvious that there was no safety in numbers like those. More than two dozen of the 97 who didn’t support Emmer— mostly from the ultra-right wing House Freedom Caucus— said he wouldn’t get their votes on the floor of the House either. The way Indiana’s Jim Banks put it, “I can't go along with putting one of the most moderate members of the entire Republican conference in the speaker's chair.” The sins that pass for moderation are, Emmer voted last year in favor of federal protections for same-sex couples, and then just a few weeks ago, voted for the stopgap federal budget bill to avert a government shutdown. That’s the issue that sank McCarthy.
Troy Nehls of Texas took the anti-Emmer movement even further: “I think Donald Trump is our answer.” A speaker doesn’t have to be a member of Congress. Heaven help us.
Trump himself, who vowed a few days ago to stay out of the picture, characteristically couldn’t. “Voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer,” he said on his website, “would be a tragic mistake!” In case you don’t remember, RINO means Republican In Name Only. With Trump speaking out against a candidate, it is just short of impossible to imagine these days that there would be enough Republicans with the spine to defy him. Of course the real trouble Trump has with Emmer is that the Minnesota congressman had the gall on January 6th, 2021, to vote to certify the election victory of Joe Biden.
So by late afternoon, CNN had to change its website again.
It’s time to cue up Queen’s apocalyptic song, “Another One Bites The Dust.”
Tom Emmer wasn’t perfect. Far from it. Although he did cast that vote to ratify Biden’s win, he also got on the bandwagon with the election deniers, supporting a Texas lawsuit that tried to get election results nullified in several swing states. And in an appearance before the Economic Club of Minnesota 44 days after the election, he was asked by a moderator, “Can you just say those words, president-elect Biden?” He couldn’t. Far from perfect, but maybe the best of a bad lot.
To call this monumental mess “groundhog day” as some have is to trivialize the dangers of what we’re seeing. It’s a meltdown. A meltdown of conventions that keep government’s gears turning, a meltdown of the democratic process. Even Kevin McCarthy said ruefully today, “Every member is tired of this.” I’ve got news for you, Mr. McCarthy, we all are.
It’s not a good look. If they were only laughing at us overseas, we could shake it off. But they’re not laughing, they’re worrying, and with good reason. Because the race for speaker is not only almost beyond belief, it’s also almost beyond dangerous. Backing for our allies in Ukraine and Israel, defense money for democratic Taiwan, dollars to deter migration from Mexico, funding for federal programs here at home, they’re all at stake. The deadline for a budget deal to pull us away from a crippling fiscal cliff is just 24 days from now. Yet the Republican Party in the House of Representatives is as far as ever from electing a speaker and without achieving that, it all stays on hold. And we’re all as far from ever from stable government.
Over more than five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He also co-authored a book about the seminal year for baby boomers, called “1969: Are You Still Listening?” He has covered presidencies, politics, and the U.S. space program at home, and wars, natural disasters, and other crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and as a 37-year resident of Colorado, a place in the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame.
It more than amazes us that in secret ballots the Republicans vote far differently than they do when they have to put their name to it. Maybe it will take the ultimate act of putting trump in jail to allow them to find their spines.
Ever know an empire destroyed internally when subverted by autocratic, performative clowns? I hope all these bozos get what's coming to them next November.