The tradition was both answered “present” rather than not voting at all.
I notice now Boehner has not voted since 2007 when he mimed Nancy and voted for himself. I guess he doesn’t like voting present.
Hastert always voted present as did Gephardt, Foley, and Michel (they have the votes going back to 1991 as I’m sure you know). Newt did so in 1995 but did not vote at all in 1997 (maybe he was hiding).
It seems crass but I would probably vote for myself like Pelosi if I were the party candidate. Maybe even if I were a regular member this year, as a joke.
With all the egos it’s almost surprising no one did.
By tradition, the Speaker of the House abstains on most legislation unless it's a tie-vote or something. That's one of the reasons it was nonsensical rhetoric in the last primary when Newt backers tried to "prove" Newt was "more conservative" than Santorum by pointing out their ACU rating during the last year they served together was something like 92% for Santorum and 100% for Newt. I forget which freeper it was, but they noted Newt probably got that "100%" score from voting for a single piece of legislation that year.
>> It seems crass but I would probably vote for myself like Pelosi if I were the party candidate. Maybe even if I were a regular member this year, as a joke. <<
As I noted, if I was a member of the House this year I'd cast a meaningless protest vote for Allen West. Since it wasn't like he was "challenging" Boehner for the Speakership it wouldn't result in any constitutional questions in the event he's actually "elected" Speaker.
If I was the party caucus leader, sure I'd vote for myself for Speaker. I'm not sure if there's a tradition there or not. They vote to re-elect themselves to Congress when they show up on election day (no doubt Obama voted for himself for President), so why not vote for yourself for Speaker when you're the party caucus choice and/or expected to get the job? I know when there are conclaves for the election of Pope in the Catholic Church, however, it's considered distateful for a Cardinal to "campaign" for the job or vote for himself as Pope. Even when there's 100% consensus on who the next Pope should be, they still won't vote for themselves. I read somewhere that the final ballot for the election of Pope John XXIII was something like 79-1, since he voted for another Cardinal instead of himself.
>> With all the egos it’s almost surprising no one did. <<
That's what surprises me. Given the ego of many of these Congressmen, I shocked none of them (on the GOP or RAT side) cast protest votes for themselves because they didn't like the party leader. And that's not even going into their fan bases that fed their egos. Adam Andrejewski supporters probably think the position of Emperor of the Universe is beneath Adam's talents. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul's supporters basically consider ANY politician besides them to be an evil constitution-hating tyrant, dontsa know. No wonder these guys are so vain.
You’re right, Speaker candidates traditionally voted “Present” (which would not affect the denominator and, if both candidates so voted, would not affect the vote). Maybe Newt and Boehner withheld their vote instead of voting Present in case they needed to cast a last-minute YEA to go over the top.
As for Pelosi, she voted for herself because she’s a boor.