The Nightman Cometh wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:i wonder if any R reps switch parties over this. If an minority of your caucus seems bent on ideological purity regardless of cost, why stay in that party? Relatively moderate Rs in heavily Republican districts would obviously have a different calculation than those who represent swing or lean D districts, but being the majority means the party holds a number of marginal and competitive seats.

a) What's the point of joining the minority party?

b) Though there's a history of party switchers also switching how they vote to become more in line with their new party, there aren't any GOP members of Congress who are more left than the most moderate Dem. It's not like there's some horde of old school liberal Republicans left in the House GOP.

I think we may see some R's switch to Independents for that reason. Might be appealing for an R like Tom MacArthur for example.

For one thing, I think MacArthur is more conservative than the district, so I doubt he'd ditch the party over conservatives acting like children. He's cast some weird votes - less leadership friendly than Runyan was. More broadly, unless you're in a district/state where the party label is toxic - maybe IL-10? - you're going to be better off running under a major party label.

I think he's going to trend more socially liberal and fiscally conservative, and doesn't necessarily need establishment support unless he is angling for leadership positions in the future, which I kind of doubt.

Not sure his party affiliation is helpful in BurCo, although their county leadership is undeniably effective.

Edit: Not sure the DCCC is putting up a fight in 16, so it may not matter though.

Romney being considered for Speaker. This is incredible.

The incentive to switch to the minority party (the only incentive) is for purposes of getting re-elected. The calculation might be something like a sitting moderate Republican representing an toss up/lean D district who as a "RINO" finds himself threatened with a potential primary fight decides that they could such a primary, and even if they won, they'd have to move so far right to do so that it would seriously undermine chances at re-election assuming the Dems actually put up a viable candidate.

I'm thinking someone like LoBiondo, though when you put an actual name to it, now it does seem quite unlikely.

Looks like Paul Ryan may be changing his mind. Reports out that he has canceled his fundraisers for the next 48 hours and was asked again by Jon Boehner to take the job.

He may be the only considerable candidate the GOP has right now that can reach 217 votes without Democratic support.

I understand very much why Paul Ryan does not want to be speaker and would not blame him if he continues saying no, but it would be very nice if he gave into this pressure from Boehner and others.

Lynn Westmoreland throwing his name out there is interesting. Five term guy from Georgia so he probably talks funny enough for the HFC folks, bit right of the center member of the caucus so he's got a conservative record, has not been a high ranking member of leadership so the baying idiots can't slaughter him for that, but he's been a loyalist to leadership so he might not be terrible.

Phan In Phlorida wrote:And speaking of Ben Carson, Rupert Murdoch said Ben Carson would be a "real black president".

Wow. It's like they're trying to say the dumbest thing possible.

Houshphandzadeh wrote:I don't really mind Jindal's concept of everyone having "skin in the game" as long as the bottom rung is still pretty negligible in practice, which 2% is, imo

I also would agree with getting rid of our convoluted exemption system except that 1) with stuff like mortgage and student loan interest, it's pretty akin to changing the rules of the game in the 3rd quarter and 2) he would leave alone things like the charity exemption which are "politically difficult" basically meaning "the ones rich people use to stay rich," so us bozos would lose our helpful tax laws while they'd still have all their loopholes

So you don't mind it except it's wrong, got it.

jerseyhoya wrote: More broadly, unless you're in a district/state where the party label is toxic - maybe IL-10? - you're going to be better off running under a major party label.

Your "party" is currently "led" by fundraisers. That's what you've got. As far as politicians, on the national level, Trump is a clown, Fiorina's a failure, Carson is nuts. Where's Mitt?

And sensible people who employ the term 'conservative' appreciatively have to look in the mirror & understand their worldview has been co-opted by weirdos

Parachuting Romney in as Speaker would be high hilarity indeed. Apparently Ryan's holding out for the 40-odd reactionary R anarchists to come kiss his ring, which is the right political move, but I'll be as surprised as anyone if enough of them actually do that

Turnip and Carson's reactions to the McCarthy fiasco indicate what we already knew: neither has much of any idea how the US government works

So here's what Ryan's telling the far-right whackjobs, singly & in groups: "I'll be Speaker & save your stupid asses, and here's what's going to happen: I'm not gonna shut the government down. You're going to nod your head and say, in public, that you're fine with that, and will support leadership on that. And you're going to do that nodding & saying where everyone can see & hear you, BEFORE I take the job. So repeat back what I just told you so I'm sure you understand what you're going to do"

Ryan would be stupid to take the job.

As a lib, I'm really hoping Newt Gingrich gets the job...

Would be entertaining as hell...he can try and impeach another Clinton...

As intriguing as calling in an outside fixer like Newt or Mitt is, it would be an admission that there's effectively no elected leadership. Not sure that plays well going forward

The statesmen driving the House's current state: most are nonentities, but some names you may know:
Mo Brooks, Trent Franks, Huelskamp, Jim Jordan, Mark Sanford, Louis Gohmert, Dave Brat.

What's up with the 2 PA reps there?

Code: Select all

Alabama   Mo Brooks
Alabama   Gary Palmer
Arizona   Trent Franks
Arizona   Paul Gosar
Arizona   Matt Salmon
Arizona   David Schweikert
Colorado   Ken Buck
Florida   Curt Clawson
Florida   Ron DeSantis
Florida   Bill Posey
Georgia   Jody Hice
Georgia   Barry Loudermilk
Idaho   Raúl Labrador
Indiana   Marlin Stutzman
Iowa   Rod Blum
Kansas   Tim Huelskamp
Louisiana   John Fleming
Maryland   Andy Harris
Michigan   Justin Amash
New Jersey   Scott Garrett
New Mexico   Steve Pearce
North Carolina   Mark Meadows
Ohio   Jim Jordan
Oklahoma   Jim Bridenstine
Pennsylvania   Scott Perry
Pennsylvania   Keith Rothfus
South Carolina   Jeff Duncan
South Carolina   Mick Mulvaney
South Carolina   Mark Sanford
Tennessee   Scott Desjarlais
Texas   Brian Babin
Texas   Louie Gohmert
Texas   Ted Poe
Virginia   Dave Brat
Virginia   Morgan Griffith
West Virginia   Alex Mooney
Wyoming   Cynthia Lummis


Perry is YORK area, Rothfus reps a gerrymandered set of burbs north and east of Pittsburgh

So McCarthy's alleged to have been porking one of his fellow R congresspersons. Well, she's not a 'fellow', but y'know

Ben Carson: Literally everything is literally Hitler.