The Republican House of Representatives

Unless you are a Congressional scholar, it’s nearly impossible to follow all the twists and turns of the U.S. House Republican Speaker fracas. What we do know is that, at this time of dangerous crises around the world, the United States does not have a Speaker to run the Republican-majority U.S. House of Representatives. Beyond the resulting inability of the House to perform crucial functions (such as voting on important legislation), the Speaker of the House is second in the line of succession, after only the Vice President, to become President if the president cannot carry out his or her duties. Suffice it to say that it’s a catastrophe not to have a House Speaker.

You may recall that this whole mess started in early January when Republicans, after winning a very narrow House majority in last November’s elections, could not agree among themselves on electing a new Speaker, which is the majority’s responsibility. It took an unprecedented 15 rounds of voting before the Republicans finally elected Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. However, to win over his extreme MAGA colleagues, McCarthy had to agree to a number of concessions, including the ability of any one Representative, at any time, to call for a “Motion to Vacate” the Speaker’s position, which is essentially a vote of “no confidence” to remove the Speaker. Suffice it to say that “Squeaker” McCarthy was extremely weak, and probably doomed, from the start, as those MAGAs could call for such a vote anytime McCarthy did not kowtow to them.