Tag: speaker of the house

Rep. Jason Chaffetz enters Speaker’s race.

Link here: I’m not going to quote, because obviously Rep. Jason Chaffetz is contrasting himself to Rep. Kevin McCarthy in this discussion, and I don’t have a public opinion on which person should be the next Speaker of the House. I have expectations on how the next Speaker of the House should operate, and if the eventual Speaker manages to meet them, we will have no problems. If he or she does not, then the next Speaker will collectively have the same problems as John Boehner did. And I kind of like John Boehner. Or at least have a certain rough sympathy for him.

One other note, here: you might have noticed that, last week, Jason Chaffetz and others on his committee ripped into Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, and her organization’s habit of running a profitable baby organ harvesting business and calling it a public service. There were a number of people on our side* who were wondering why the GOP took the time to smack that woman in the face with the half million dollar salary that she gets for overseeing the baby harvesters: perhaps that line of questioning is now a bit clearer? The major thing that the Republican base wants from the next Speaker of the House is a bit more righteous indignation, expressed openly – and with a grand indifference to whether it offends those who prefer silence and circumspection.  I have no objections if any particular  candidate wishes to audition early for the role. Continue reading Rep. Jason Chaffetz enters Speaker’s race.

The Speaker’s office is keeping score of #HarryReidsShutdown.

Every funding bill that the House has passed and that the Senate has refused to even consider – which is to say all of them, except for the one funding the military.  Basically, Harry Reid thinks that he can let a few kids with cancer die and still not worry about losing his Senate Majority Leader gig… but even his current caucus might balk at playing games with the troops at that level of sadistic indifference.

It will, unfortunately, undoubtedly have to be updated.

Via

 

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Nancy Pelosi scrambles to correct her comments on the Speakership.

I was wondering when Pelosi’s handlers would realize that the poor woman stepped in it.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s office clarified on Friday her apparent disinterest in returning to her old job as House speaker.

I’ll spare you the tortured reasoning; suffice it to say that Pelosi office would like a take-back on her Kinsley Gaffe*, and it’s a measure of the woman’s status in Congress right now that I am somewhat indifferent about her getting it or not.  Yeah, sure, whatever: Pelosi does want to be Speaker again.  Continue reading Nancy Pelosi scrambles to correct her comments on the Speakership.

Aww, Obama feels HAMPERED by not having Nancy Pelosi as Speaker.

Barack Obama (H/T: Hot Air Headlines):

“Realistically, I could get a whole lot more done if Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House,” he said as the [Calfiornian] crowd applauded.

Moe Lane:

…Which is why Nancy Pelosi is no longer Speaker of the House.

[pause]

That’s it.

Moe Lane

#rsrh Speaker Boehner survives.

Roll Call titled this article “Boehner Threads a Needle,” and I think that they have the right of it.  If he had lost control of the debt ceiling process, Speaker Boehner would have been crippled for the rest of this term, and probably been out of the leadership cadre as soon as it could have been done without unnecessary embarrassment; as it is, the various factions of the GOP caucus have a pretty good idea of how far they can all push things before they run up against the Speaker of the House’s power, which is… considerable, in this country*.

Fortunately, this entire exercise should also give the Speaker an idea about how very, very seriously the Right is taking fiscal issues right now, too.  Given that Speaker Boehner would very much like to keep being Speaker Boehner, that’s all to the good.

Moe Lane

PS: I know that a lot of folks are unhappy about the final deal: not enough ground was recaptured.  True.  We didn’t liberate Paris on June 7, 1944, either… oh, sorry, violent rhetoric.  My bad.

*One reason why so few Speakers run for President; it’s almost as powerful a job and, apparently, often a lot more fun.

#rsrh Nancy Pelosi, out in the cold (where she belongs).

This would be sad…

At Thursday’s White House meeting between President Obama and congressional leaders, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner laid out in stark terms the awful economic repercussions of allowing the debt ceiling to lapse. Everyone in the room agreed that defaulting on U.S. debt would be disastrous and that something must be done. At that point, Nancy Pelosi asked: Why couldn’t the debt ceiling be decoupled from deficit reduction?

Her query, after so many weeks of reports and talks centered on deficit reduction tied to a debt ceiling deal, visibly surprised some leaders in the room, several Republican and Democratic sources say. Obama politely informed the House Minority Leader, those same sources say, that that train had left the station weeks ago.

…if it had happened to anybody else except the House Minority Leader.  As it is, it’s a glaring (or entertaining) reminder of why former Speakers of the House typically, you know, leave after they’ve been repudiated.  The woman has less power now than she did as House Minority Leader in 2005, when both Congress and the White House were held by Republicans; when a politician slips down from the pinnacle of power to his/her old position, that politician has by definition demonstrated an essential weakness.  Expecting other politicians not to note that, and act accordingly, is… foolish.

Continue reading #rsrh Nancy Pelosi, out in the cold (where she belongs).

Clearly, Nancy Pelosi is a New York Times reader…

…because she hadn’t a clue about the Senate ACORN defunding amendment.  Note that the New York Post is a little more forceful than me; they called Speaker Pelosi ‘clueless.’  Which is not actually unfair of them: keeping track of things like this is part of the Speaker of the House’s job.

Then again, so is paying attention to what happens on the House floor.

(Via JammieWearingFool, via Instapundit)

Crossposted to RedState.

Rahm Emanuel will never be Speaker of the House.

Even if Rahm Emanuel manages to leave this administration with his reputation intact.

Even if Rahm Emanuel manages to win back the seat that he gave up to become Chief of Staff.

Even if the Democrats keep control of the House of Representatives.

He’s made too many new enemies on his own side in his new job. And there’s no ideological / theological reason for those enemies to not take out their frustrations on him.

Just saying, that’s all.

Crossposted to RedState.