What is one of the most sought after but dangerous jobs in our nation’s capital? No, it’s not a secret service agent protecting the president. It’s speaker of the House of Representatives when the Republicans are in the majority. The GOP reminds me of a hungry sow who, if you don’t watch closely, is apt to eat her piglets shortly after they’re born. This is what the GOP seems to be doing to those elevated to speaker when it’s in the majority.,
Back in 1999, Newt Gingrich was forced to resign from the speaker’s chair and congress under pressure from Republican colleagues after the party did such a crappy job in the 1998 House elections – not directly because of his 1997 reprimand for ethics violations.
Dennis Hastert, was the longest serving Republican House speaker in history, served his term until the GOP lost the majority, and then got sentenced to 15 months in prison for sex abuse when he was a high school wrestling coach.
Under pressure from hardliners in the Republican House Freedom Caucus, House speaker John Boehner quit the job in 2019.
After 20 years in the House, Paul Ryan quit in disgust over the shenanigans of the extreme right of his party.
Kevin McCarthy, after making a deal with the devil and umpteen votes, was elected speaker in January 2023. Then, because he had the temerity in September to do what speakers are supposed to do, namely work across the aisle to get essential legislation passed—in this case a stopgap spending bill that keeps the government open until mid-November—the GOP schoolyard bullies, led by Florida’s Matt Gaetz, who is only slightly more popular among his GOP colleagues than George Santos, pushed through a vote to do what had never been done before, oust the speaker of the House. The eight Republicans (along with all the House Democrats) who voted to fire him, were the same people he kowtowed to in order to get the job in the first place.
Two people immediately threw their hats into the ring to replace him, Jim Jordan of Ohio, a man who doesn’t seem to own a suit jacket—and a former wrestling coach—and Steve Scalise from Louisiana, who once spoke at a conference hosted by a white supremacist group, and later said he regretted it. The House GOP conference selected Scalise over Jordan (who by the way, was endorsed by Donald Trump – chew on that one) in a 113-99 vote on October 11, but then recessed before it could go to a full House vote where Scalise will need to get 217 votes to become speaker—not a slam dunk, because many in the GOP won’t vote for him, and he can’t be guaranteed to get the Democratic vote.
All we can do now is wait and see if these guys can get their act together before the continuing resolution expires in mid-November and we’re threatened with a government shutdown over the Christmas holidays. Not to mention the need to continue supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression, provide support to Israel after a surprise attack from Hamas, and get all the delayed promotions in DoD on track so defense can do its job effectively. Oh, and hundreds of other little things.
Don’t hold your breath, though. House members don’t sweat government shutdowns. They continue getting full pay for doing nothing, while essential government workers are forced to work without pay, and government contractors probably won’t get back pay when they finally pull their heads out of rectal defilade and do their jobs.
You see, these are the same guys, most of them, who ousted Liz Cheney and pilloried Adam Kinzinger for living up to their oaths of office and following the evidence in the Trump impeachments and the January 6 hearings.
So, buckle up your life vests, folks. We’ve got some rough seas ahead. And, on the way out, I have one question: why would anyone want this job. It seems to me it’s cursed.