Posted on 10/12/2023 5:48:54 AM PDT by Red Badger
Scalise won the speaker nomination during a closed-door secret ballot election on Wednesday with 113 votes — 104 votes shy of 217 needed to win on the House floor.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise's nomination for House speaker is on its way to the House floor but he needs to pick up 104 votes from Republicans to win the speakership with a simple majority of 217 votes.
Scalise won the speaker nomination during a closed-door, secret ballot election on Wednesday with 113 votes compared to 99 for House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, (R-Oh). There were 10 other GOP votes that went to other candidates in the secret ballot election.
It appears that Scalise may have a tough time gaining the support of all 99 lawmakers who backed Jordan. Even if he is able to do so, he still needs 5 more GOP lawmakers to side with him after they voted for a different candidate in the secret ballot election.
At least eight GOP House members so far have said they intend to vote for Jordan instead of Scalise on the House floor. Reps. Lauren Boebert, (R-Co.), Marjorie Taylor Greene, (R-Ga.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) and Max Miller, (R-Ohio) have all publicly announced they will vote for Jordan in the general speaker race. GOP leaders have held off on scheduling the full floor vote for now.
"In conference, Jordan received 99 votes and Scalise received 113. We had a chance to unify the party behind closed doors, but the Swamp and K Street lobbyists prevented that," Boebert, who voted against removing McCarthy as speaker, wrote on X. "The American people deserve a real change in leadership, not a continuation of the status quo."
Rep. Thomas Massie, (R-Ky.), who voted against ousting McCarthy, announced he will not vote for Scalise.
"Surprises are for little kids at birthday parties, not Congress. So, I let Scalise know in person that he doesn’t have my vote on the floor, because he has not articulated a viable plan for avoiding an omnibus," he said.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, (R-Fla.), introduced the motion to vacate that chair that passed with eight GOP votes and all Democrat votes, resulting in the removal of McCarthy last week. Gaetz said he plans to vote for Scalise on the floor.
"I'm excited for him. I can't wait to go vote for Steve Scalise. Long live Speaker Scalise," he told the press.
The GOP has a slim majority of 221 compared to 212 for the Democrats. Their majority could be cut to 220 if Rep. George Santos, (R-NY.), abstains from voting due to the additional 10 federal charges against him that were announced on Tuesday evening.
For comparison, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had 188 GOP votes before his nomination went to the House floor — 75 more votes than Scalise has secured so far. Rep. Andy Biggs, (R-Az.), former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, received 33 votes. The election of McCarthy to the speaker's chair lasted a historic 15 rounds.
Jordan has urged his backers to support Scalise on the House floor, according to a source close to the process. However, Jordan had publicly endorsed McCarthy for speaker and even nominated him on the House floor during the marathon speaker election in January but it still lasted 15 rounds due to a handful of conservative holdouts.
House Democratic leaders have said their entire caucus plans to vote for House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, (D-NY.), on the House floor.
Prior to the election for speaker at Wednesday's GOP conference meeting, lawmakers considered a rule change that would have increased the threshold needed to win the speaker nomination from a majority of the GOP conference to a simple majority of 217 votes. The change would likely have avoided the speaker vote on the House floor from lasting multiple rounds like it did in January with McCarthy's nomination. The motion to raise the threshold was tabled at the meeting, Just the News has learned.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reacted to the news of Scalise's nomination, saying she hopes the House GOP "stops the chaos" and selects the "speaker of their choosing so that we can move forward and do the people's business."
The “Moderates” (Uniparty) maybe need to learn they need to get more conservative to unify the party and not require the conservatives to be less so.
Stop playing divisive games and look at the real challenge...getting any bill through the Dem owned Senate and past Biden's Magic pen. Doesn't matter who the speaker is.
That was the GOP's first mistake. Vote out in the open and let the congresstards face their constituents.
The House GOP should give Scalise a unanimous vote to serve out the remainder of McCarthy’s term.
If Jordan had won and some Scalise voters had refused to back him in the vote in the house, would that have been an acceptable thing to do?
We’d be in the same boat......................
On conservative watchdog websites, the data shows that their (Jordan & Scalise) conservative creds are between 50% and 60%. We can do better.
Aside from the political reasons I don’t like Scalise for Speaker, the man just announced in August he has Multiple Myeloma cancer. He said it was treatable & it is, but it’s not curable & he will be living with it. He’s already undergone aggressive chemo & there is probably more of that coming down the pike.
With what is going on in this country, we need a Speaker in good health who can concentrate fully on the job & give it 100%. Best wishes to Steve - regardless of Speaker outcome, I hope his treatments go well and he has years to spend with his family.
It sounds like Scalise will not be the next speaker. There are too many Republicans who will refuse to support him.
Half a loafer is better than no loafer..........
The GOOBs need to give Nanzi her office back and make her the Speaker of the House. We never seemed to have all these problems when her *** was runnin’ that joint.
I disagree. The United States Government has been weaponized against the people it is constructed to protect. We currently have a bunch of Satanic Pedophiles running the United States of America. Better to shut it all down until the deep state does a deep cleaning of the most evil people to ever occupy office. We cannot live free while SATANIC PEDOPHILES run the nation. God is not happy with us and he shouldn’t be. Little children in our country are being mutilated by their parents for attention and the government is approving vaccines which give them autism. Better to shut it all down and fight it out until we expose the demons running this country.
“Doesn’t matter who the speaker is.”
__________________________________________
Of course it does matter who the Speaker is. If it didn’t matter, Lying McCarthy would still be there.
"I'm excited for him. I can't wait to go vote for Steve Scalise. Long live Speaker Scalise," he told the press.
Re: https://libertyscore.conservativereview.com/
Scalise conservative score - F 58%.
McCarthy conservative score - F 54%.
Scalise is McCarthy 2.0
Jordan conservative score - A 94%.
They need to settle this behind closed doors. Hash it out as a team and stop giving the media fodder.
Draft Donald J. Trump for the speakership, vote him in, and sit back while the bills get managed with all deliberate speed through the House, up to and including the separate funding bills for each Federal agency, and just maybe, articles of impeachment for both Joe Biden and “Que mala” Harris.
Then go out and invest heavily is the stock of companies that manufacture underwear for incontinent persons, as perhaps a third or more of US residents will be soiling their undergarments.
I'm not a big fan of these ratings because sometimes the "conservative" vote on a specific bill is the wrong one for me, but on this point I think you are flat-out wrong. The last post I saw on this subject showed Scalise with about a 55% rating and Jordan with a rating above 90%.
See here (for example):
re: https://libertyscore.conservativereview.com/
Scalise conservative score - F 58%.
McCarthy conservative score - F 54%.
Scalise is McCarthy 2.0
Jordan conservative score - A 94%.
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