Here is CNN: Rep. Steve Scalise has won the House GOP’s nomination for speaker during a secret ballot vote, according to multiple sources familiar. The final vote tally was 113 for Steve Scalise and 99 for Jim Jordan. The threshold […]
House of Representatives
Is Kevin McCarthy leaving Congress?
Here is Olivia Beavers at Politico: Kevin McCarthy is considering resigning from the House before the end of his term, two people familiar with the matter told POLITICO. The deposed former speaker has made clear he plans to stay at […]
The GOP clownshow rolls on
In 1910, the House of Representatives voted to remove Speaker of the House Joseph Cannon, an anti-progressive Republican (as opposed to the progressive Republican presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft) from Illinois. Here is Hillsdale College historian Joseph Postell: […]
Can they impeach Joe Biden for being a “sex symbol”?
Here is Heidi Przybla at Politico: House Oversight Chair James Comer, who is investigating President Joe Biden for what Republicans call potentially impeachable offenses, was given unrestricted access Thursday to a batch of his emails from his time as vice […]
Lauren Boebert apologizes
A follow-up to this story. Sometimes you need to apologize to save your political life. Let’s see if she will apologize to the pregnant woman who asked her to stop vaping.
The real meaning of Kevin McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry against Biden
I’ll let Russell Berman explain. Here is a taste of his piece at The Atlantic: As Kevin McCarthy made his televised declaration earlier today that House Republicans were launching an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, the House speaker stood outside his […]
Was Trump really impeached twice?
Yes. He was. But Marjorie Taylor Greene and Elise Stefanik don’t think so. No, really. They have introduced resolutions to “expunge” Trump’s impeachments from the historical record “as if such Articles of Impeachment had never passed the House of Representatives.” […]
Rep. George Santos just got arrested
The representative from New York’s 3rd congressional district just got charged with wire fraud, money-laundering, theft of public funds, and lying to the House of Representatives. All felonies. Here is CNN: Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against New York Rep. […]
Danielle Allen wants to increase the size of the U.S. House of Representatives. Can the Capitol accommodate such an expansion?
If the United States House of Representatives grew to 736 members over the next forty years would we need a new Capitol to hold them all? Here is a taste of Danielle Allen‘s fascinating Washington Post piece: The Capitol has […]
The “Five Families” of the House Republican Caucus
As a fan of The Godfather, I couldn’t pass up this Washington Post piece by Adrian Blanco, Marianna Sotomayor, and Hannah Dormido. Here is a taste: It all started with a meeting that then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) convened after […]
Jamie Raskin gives his House GOP colleagues a grammar lesson
Earlier this year we shared historian Lawrence Glickman’s piece at Slate on why Republicans insist on calling their political opponents the “Democrat Party.” Read it here. I thought about this piece today after I watched Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin respond […]
Should we expand the House of Representatives?
Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen thinks we can solve some of our partisan differences and “renovate our democracy” by expanding the House of Representatives. She makes her case here. A taste: Why this one renovation above all others? Four reasons: […]
What’s the deal with those AR-15 lapel pins that GOP members of Congress are wearing?
Will Bunch explains at The Philadelphia Inquirer. A taste: The sight in recent days of Santos and several of his Republican colleagues parading through the hallowed halls of the U.S. Capitol with a mini-celebration of a killing machine that serves […]
House passes a resolution condemning attacks on anti-abortion facilities and groups
Last week the House of Representatives passed H.Con Res. 3 “expressing the sense of Congress condemning the recent attacks on pro-life facilities, groups, and churches. Here is some of the text: Whereas since the May 2, 2022, leak of the […]
Marjorie Taylor Greene: mainstream Republican
As the Republican members-elect of the 118th Congress tried to select a Speaker of the House last week, Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, an election denier, former QAnon follower, and believer in Jewish space lasers, backed Kevin McCarthy on all […]
Historian Joanne Freeman on the near scuffle between Mike Rogers and Matt Gaetz
Here is part of what I wrote last night after the fourteenth ballot for Speaker of the House: Before the end of the vote, McCarthy had to walk up the aisle to talk to Matt Gaetz to try to get […]
“Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” –Donald Trump
Kevin McCarthy, with the help of Donald Trump, is Speaker of the House. Here is what some of the members of the House Select Committee on January 6th are saying: Liz Cheney: Adam Kinzinger: Adam Schiff: Jamie Raskin:
Tweet of the Day
Context:
On January 6, 2021 there was violence on the House floor. Violence almost broke again on January 6, 2023
As I started this post at 11:14pm on Friday night there were still six people standing in the way of Kevin McCarthy’s speakership. They were Andy Biggs (AZ), Lauren Boebert (CO), Eli Crane (AZ), Matt Gaetz (FL), Bob Good (VA), […]
Blogging the 12th vote for Speaker of the House
A lot happened in this vote. McCarthy picked-up fourteen votes. There are now seven who oppose him. He needs three of these votes to become Speaker of the House. 12:20pm: I find it shocking that Mike Garcia (R-CA), while nominating […]