…this plays right into Jeffries and House Dems hands…they can tell Moses if he wants to stay Speaker he’s gonna have to offer up the Ukraine funding immediately if you want our votes (or abstentions) to oppose vacating the Speaker’s chair
That’s the logical play, but they better get the aid up front because Johnson isn’t trustworthy and obviously isn’t in control of his own party.
In a functioning congress dealing would make logical sense. The fact that Republicans can’t be trusted to follow through on deals makes trying to make deals with them illogical.
Compromise on one specific piece of legislation? Sure, as long as it is checked to ensure no poison pulls were snuck in and the compromise was worth it.
This plan is extortion, not dealing. And the assholes Republicans deserve to be extorted, the Dems need to grow a few dozen pairs and give it a shot.
But then they could just call another vote for speaker? Not sure this would be the play, but if it was, I don’t see he can renege without just incurring the same fate?
Depends on if the House rule is “any Rep can move to vacate” or if it’s “any Rep of the majority party can move to vacate.”
Though it seems if we wait a few more weeks, that might be the Dems anyway lol.
Yeah that’s a good point and I’m not sure of the particulars. However, assuming the hard right still wants to remove him, democrats have the leverage to affect the vote.
No need to wonder. The rule was changed specifically for the 118th Congress (this one) and it’s the very first line in the summary:
Specific changes include
permitting a single Member to call for a vote to remove the Speaker;
Here are the rules as a whole, in PDF (link in page): https://rules.house.gov/rules-and-resources
This motion is not an immediate threat.
The way it was filed lets them bury it in committee, this was only a MAGA warning shot.
And more GOP theater, which they are also very bad at. None of these people have any skills. It’s like they grew up licking lead pipes, and still are.
Or sucking on the backs of church pews. Also decent source of lead. Or licking their fingers after loading their guns, or eating fishing sinkers because they look like Hershey Kisses.
There are a myriad of ways that gene splash pad of a caucus could get so dumb, but I’ve already wasted too much life imagining those.
A motion is basically a consideration and an opportunity for a press conference. She didn’t actually kick off a vote, she’s only asking “should I kick off a vote.”
This smells like MTG just wanting attention again.
Technically, no, the request itself very real and has teeth, but for it to just die and produce attention is what she seems to want and is betting on. It’s all a gamble on her part, but the dice are real.
A Motion to Vacate is a legal request for Congress to hold a vote on having the current Speaker vacate the office. -IF- it ever gets to a vote, a simple majority is all that is needed, under the new rules for this Congress, for a Speaker to be ousted.
But she’s personally betting it will never get to a vote, not be supported, and will be killed by others long before that. From Wikipedia (bolding is mine):
Under House Rule IX, a resolution to declare the office of Speaker of the United States House of Representatives vacant is considered privileged: once introduced on the floor by a member, the resolution must be put to a floor vote within two legislative days. In 2019, at the beginning of the 116th Congress, the rules were altered to prevent motions from qualifying as matters of privilege unless “offered on behalf of a party conference or caucus.” The 2019 rule change remained in place until 2023, when the 118th Congress reversed it. A member can decide whether to introduce the motion to vacate on the floor or through the regular channels: the motion is only privileged in the first case.
In the history of the House of Representatives, there have been only four instances of a motion to vacate the chair being filed: one in March 1910 against Joe Cannon, which ended up being voted down, one in July 2015 against John Boehner, which was never put up to a vote, one in October 2023 against Kevin McCarthy (which, unlike its predecessors, was successful) and one against Mike Johnson. All four were filed by Republicans against a Republican speaker.
Read further in Wikipedia if you want the details, but it’s the Speaker of the House’s main job to allow specific pieces of legislation to come to the floor to be voted on, and he can gatekeep whatever he wants. So essentially she’s counting on Mike Johnson refusing to allow a motion for his own firing to come to the floor for a vote, or for the House Rules Committee to shoot it down first. This is probably a good bet. Also, if it ever gets to a vote, any other member can respond to the motion by entering a countering Motion to Table (postpone) the vote itself, indefinitely if they like.
Thus, success or failure simply depends on how many votes are needed at any given step, and she is betting, probably rightly so, that there just isn’t enough hatred for Mike Johnson yet for this to get anywhere near a vote.
But she’s doing the legislative equivalent of waving a loaded gun. Don’t think it’s just perfunctory, because this is the same shit that got McCarthy ousted in under a week without breaking a sweat. Hence, the threat. It frankly reminds me of the same irresponsible, self-certain political brinksmanship that called for a “non-binding” referendum in the UK as to their continued membership in the EU that turned out to be very binding indeed.
Bitch is playing with fire.
Oh no, they’re eating each other’s faces again and will only make it clearer just how incompetent they are… so anyways, TGIF everyone! What’s the plan for the weekend?
you live laugh love to see it.
Mike Johnson all but said he has the Democratic votes to avoid the fate of his predesessor. This might be the “Sedition Caucus”'s death knell if he’s right. This is basically all their leverage.
Or, vote him out and make so much fun of him that he quits too, putting congress closer to a dem majority.
The leopards 🐆 are coming…
In other news: The leopard population has exploded due to a near unlimited supply of faces.
Godspeed, MTG, and good luck! Eat yourself alive GOP
God, the infighting. Maga really can’t stand anyone who’s not them.
