Day 2 - Part 2

Day 2 - Part 1

To be fair, his choices were bad and worse.

Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it.   They may have had a modicum of organizational and reasoning skills.  They didn't have idiots like Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Lauren Boebert back then.

They should, Jeffries being the Democratic leader, but they don't dare.

Republicans have been trying to destroy the government since the 80s.  I can't believe all the people that vote for them actually understand that.

SIXTH ballot underway.  Who will blink first?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Oh, snap!...He's lost Matt Gaetz!  

“This is on them,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the incoming chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said during a press briefing in the Capitol.

Aguilar said he hasn’t been approached by any lawmakers about a search for a potential consensus candidate, nor have Democratic leaders presented that possibility to their rank-and-file members, who are united behind Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the incoming minority leader who got all 212 Democratic votes on Tuesday’s three ballots.

[...]

[E]ven those Democrats who have supported the idea of a consensus candidate don’t appear ready to jump on board. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has been open to that strategy, is also downplaying that idea this week amid the Republicans’ struggles to seat a new Speaker.

“At the end of the day, this is a Republican mess,” he told CNN Tuesday night. “This is a failure of them to govern. This is their problem to fix.”

“And Democrats stand ready if they want to vote for Hakeem Jeffries,” Khanna added, suggesting a strategy that’s a non-starter among Republicans.

  The Hill

Although it would be the best thing for the country, by far.

“For one day — it was unfortunate — we can deal with that. But now it gets serious, because we effectively don’t have a House of Representatives,” [Dem Rep Ted] Lieu said. “This can’t keep on going. You can’t have one branch of the federal government simply not function.”

I think he's about to find out we can.

So...nothing's breaking loose.

UPDATE:  I think she might have been wrong.  But all we have is a microphone in one place that might not pick up what she heard.  Or maybe she's been told what to hear.

So there'll be some serious scrambling this afternoon.

UPDATE 7pm Central:

UPDATE:

 Nobody is paying any attention to Trump any more anyway.

Does she think she might have a chance at the VP slot on a Trump ticket?  I have a feeling there's not going to be a Trump ticket.

What makes him think tomorrow will be any different?

The House reconvened briefly Wednesday evening before voting to adjourn for the day rather than hold a seventh vote for Speaker.

[...]

The final vote was 216-214.

[...]

Four Republicans joined all Democrats in voting “no”: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Rep.-elect Eli Crane (Ariz.).

Two Democrats and two Republicans did not vote.

Democratic leaders had whipped against the motion, hoping to force a seventh Speakership vote.

There appeared to be a commotion on the House floor at the tail end of the vote, as Democrats demanded it be held open longer.

[...]

McCarthy, leaving a meeting later Wednesday said there was no deal but Republicans had “made a lot of progress.”

  The Hill

LOL.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) emerged from a meeting Wednesday evening slamming McCarthy for a “bad faith effort.”

He claimed McCarthy apologized to him for saying untrue things about negotiations with his detractors — but would no do so publicly.

“Mr. McCarthy asked those of us who were not intending to vote for him to provide him a list of our members who might be willing to serve on relevant committees … McCarthy said, 'Look, if you want to have a say on the budget, if you want to have to say on the rules, you have to recommend people that might be willing to serve' … because guess what, not everybody here wants to be a committee chair, subcommittee chair. And so we then endeavor to create that list to provide it to Mr. McCarthy. And then he ran around telling all y'all and members of his team that we were out there negotiating for personal favors for ourselves.”

“It was a bad faith effort for McCarthy to solicit a list and then use that list in some way to try to divide our conference.”

Also with him leaving the meeting was Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.). Asked if there is anything that McCarthy can do to win her support, she said: “No.”

source: The Hill

h/t Stephen

See you tomorrow.

Elections have consequences

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Day 2 of Kevin McCarthy's humiliation by GOP renegades

He was begging for it.  It was foretold for months.  He embarrassed himself by moving into the Speaker's office before winning what was never assured in the first place.

And MAGA world is split now, with Trump backing McCarthy.  I suspect, however, he'll change his tune if/when someone else is selected.*

Meanwhile, the rest of MAGA...

For the next two years the House is going to be hostage to these self-aggrandizers.

Unless the majority of House Republicans are willing to vote with Democrats, the good of the country - and the world - will be sidelined for two years, and that will be devastating at a time when climate crisis and war are overtaking us.

I think that's it, Elie.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

* UPDATE:  Yep.

Day 2 - Part 2

OMG this guy!

He just can't STOP lying.

Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) posted a press release saying he was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives by the speaker of the House. The only problem is, there currently is no speaker of the House and thus no one was sworn in on Tuesday.

Santos's release, which has since been deleted, on the House website, additionally read, "Representative George Santos was added to the rolls of the House upon executing the oath of office."

[...]

Despite admitting to lying about much of his biography, Santos has repeatedly said he won't step down. But as he waits to actually be sworn into Congress once a speaker is chosen, Santos has to deal with another issue: being the target of a fraud investigation by authorities in Brazil.

  Washington Examiner

Republican Rep.-elect George Santos admitted to stealing a man’s checkbook that was in his mother’s possession to purchase clothing and shoes in 2008, according to documents obtained by CNN.

[...]

Santos used stolen checks to make purchases at a shop in Niterói, a city outside of Rio de Janeiro on June 17, 2008, according to court documents. When making the purchase, he used an ID card with the checkbook owner’s name and a picture of himself, according to police documents.

[...]

Santos confessed to forging the man’s signature on two checks to purchase clothes and shoes costing approximately $1,313.63 on the date of the forgery, and confirmed it was his signature on the forged checks.

[...]

Two days after Santos made the purchases, a man named Thiago came into the same store with the shoes Santos had purchased and tried to return them for a different size. He said a friend gave him the shoes and was unaware of any illicit activity.

[...]

The clerk had to pay the amount of the fraudulent purchase in installments to the store.

[...]

Santos’ mother told the police in November 2010 that the checks were stolen from a checkbook she had in her purse belonging to Delio da Camara da Costa Alemao, who died a year prior to her speaking with police, and that her son had used four checks. Santos’ mother was Costa Alemao’s nurse prior to his death.

[...]

Soon after the sale, they were able to find the bank account’s owner and talk to him on the phone, the manager said. He said he had closed the account in 2006 after losing the checkbook.

  CNN

I don't think he "lost" the checkbook. And maybe they should check into his death.

In June 2011, investigators filed a request with the Civil Police to take immediate judicial measures against Santos. In September, a judge summoned him to respond to the complaint through an attorney. Neither Santos nor an attorney ever responded. Three months later, authorities tried to deliver a summons for Santos at the prior home of his mother but he was not able to be located and she no longer lived there.

[...]

A judge eventually suspended the statute of limitations in order for the case to be reopened later if Santos was found, the documents show.

As recently as October 2020, a document from the judiciary said they still had never been able to locate Santos to prosecute him for the crime.

He'd gone to America and become a Republican icon!

In an interview with the New York Post last week, Santos denied that he had been charged with any crime in Brazil, saying: “I am not a criminal here – not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world. Absolutely not. That didn’t happen.”

An easy out for the Republicans in the House could be to let him be extradited back to Brazil. Of course, not until McCarthy gets the Speaker's gavel - he needs that vote! (He still hasn't got enough votes.)

Last month, the New York Times published a report suggesting that Santos lied to voters about his college graduation, his criminal and employment history, his family-owned business, his animal rescue charity and his relationship with four victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla. The Forward, a New York City-based Jewish publication, subsequently published a report suggesting he had misled voters about having Jewish ancestry.

In an interview with the New York Post, Santos admitted he “embellished” much of his biography. But he also tried to defend himself. (“I never claimed to be Jewish,” he told the Post. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”)

[...]

On Monday, the Times reported that Brazilian prosecutors were reopening a 2008 case against him for alleged fraud around a stolen checkbook. The matter had been suspended because Rio de Janeiro authorities had been unable to locate him, but a spokesperson said they would be formally requesting that the U.S. Justice Department notify him of the charge. Santos has denied the charge, telling the Post last week, “I am not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world.”

The other investigations into Santos are likely to focus on his campaign finances. When he ran for a House seat in 2020, he listed an income of $55,000 from LinkBridge Investors and no major assets. In 2022, he listed an income of $750,000 from the Devolder Organization and millions in assets.

Santos told the outlet Semafor that he made his money doing “deal building” and “specialty consulting” for “high net worth individuals,” but didn’t provide the names of any clients. In an interview with City and State New York, he said he had opened his own firm and “it just worked, because I had the relationships, and I started making a lot of money. And I fundamentally started building wealth.”

[...]

One place where he did actually work recently, Harbor City Capital, was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of operating a Ponzi scheme.

[...]

He has also attracted scrutiny for receiving tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a Russian businessman with Kremlin ties, while criticizing President Biden’s support for Ukraine in defending itself against Russia’s invasion.

[...]

The New York Times had reported that a judge ordered him to pay more than $12,000 to [a prior] landlord for several months of unpaid rent and that Santos had written a check that bounced. The Times also reported that Santos owes $5,000 to a former roommate.

  Yahoo

The perfect Trumpian politician.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

You weren't duped so much as you weren't curious or diligent.

UPDATE :1/11

What a shitshow

Oh boy

Sad!

Actually, Marj, nobody has any committees until somebody gets the Speaker's gavel.

Playing clever games

They'll vote for Jordan on the second ballot?  Why didn't they vote for him on the first?

They should be careful. They're not very good at clever.

Hakeem Jeffries - the Democrats' leader - got more votes than McCarthy.  

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Stupid and embarrassing.

Yep, they played you, asshat.  Couldn't have happened to a  more deserving guy.

(Dennis Hastert)

(Jim Jordan)

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

Jan 6 document release (more)

Trump lawyers strategized which federal courts would be likeliest to uphold their fringe constitutional theories; Trump White House aides battled to keep unhinged theories from reaching the president’s ears; as the Jan. 6 attack unfolded, West Wing aides sent horrified messages about Trump’s incendiary tweets and inaction; and after the attack, some Trump allies discussed continued efforts to derail the incoming Biden administration.

[...]

The select committee posted Trump’s complete White House call logs from Jan. 2, Jan. 3 and Jan. 5, 2021 — each reflecting the then-president’s intense focus on remaining in power.

[...]

On Jan. 3, Trump’s call logs reflect a flurry of contacts with top Justice Department officials as he contemplated elevating Jeffrey Clark to acting attorney general — a figure he viewed as sympathetic to his bid to stay in power. Trump spoke to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) that afternoon just before the call logs reflect Clark actually being elevated, however briefly, to the top DOJ post. But the move didn’t hold. The threat of a mass resignation by DOJ leaders prompted Trump to back away from the plan.

[...]

“Jan. 6 is a dangerous idea,” [Utah Senator Mike] Lee said, in a message exchange with [ Trump attorney Cleta] Mitchell that she provided to the select committee. “Not just for the republic itself, but also for the president.”

Lee lamented that no court or state authority had backed Trump’s effort, so he didn’t view Congress as an appropriate backstop.

[...]

Trump aide Hope Hicks texted with Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff Julie Radford on the afternoon of Jan. 6, decrying Trump’s actions and lamenting that their careers were likely doomed.

“All of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I’m so mad and upset,” Hicks wrote. “We all look like domestic terrorists now.”

“Oh yes I’ve been crying for an hour,” Radford replied.

“Not being dramatic but looks like we are all fucked,” Hicks continued.

[...]

Hicks expressed outrage about [Trump's] attack on Vice President Mike Pence in the midst of the violence. “Wtf is wrong with him?” she wrote.

  Politico

Hicks had been closely involved with Trump for years. Did she really not know?

[General Mark] Milley’s 300-page interview transcript is jammed with some of the most explosive news of the Jan. 6 committee’s entire investigation. In one exchange [...] he said he had to dissuade Trump administration figures from a suggestion that retired military officers who wrote op-eds critical of Trump should be recalled and court-martialed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.