Kevin McCarthy, he who would be speaker but definitely is not, has endured two days of humiliation. Not just endured—volunteered for. Insisted on through SIX votes for House speaker in which he made no progress toward victory. Each time, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries got the most votes.
McCarthy did manage to close out Wednesday with what passes for a win for him this week, though: He managed to get the House to vote to adjourn, 216 to 214, rather than resuming the votes in the evening. On that vote, all Democrats present held together against adjourning and were joined by four of the anti-McCarthy Republicans—but two Democrats weren’t there to vote. If Reps. Tony Cárdenas and Adriano Espaillat had been there, it would have been deadlocked. Thanks, guys!
But that was the half-assed high point of Wednesday for McCarthy after another day of abject failure, in which he lost his fourth, fifth, and sixth speaker votes. He’s getting ready to come back for a third day, though. Hope really does spring eternal, I guess, and Daily Kos will have continuing coverage of McCarthy’s quest.
RELATED STORY: McCarthy gets reprieve, wins adjournment vote. Humiliation to resume tomorrow
In Wednesday night meetings with Republican holdouts, McCarthy tried something new. He had already surrendered on many of their demands, so you’d think he didn’t have much left to offer, but on Wednesday, he seems to have progressed to abject surrender and maybe some groveling.
Pardon me for asking, but how is that in any way a “compromise”? And how will the people who were already voting for McCarthy feel about the specific things he’s giving away.
The kicker, of course, is that once again, McCarthy is trying to win a job that involves counting votes to ensure success by making concessions that he has no guarantee or even strong reason to believe will work:
Wednesday afternoon, this was the very optimistic tone coming from McCarthy supporters:
And then McCarthy … basically surrendered unconditionally, at least until he finds out there are more conditions to surrender to.
So this is the state of play going into Thursday, the third day of voting: McCarthy has made still more concessions, but there’s reason to believe it won’t be enough to get him over the finish line. One thing is for sure, though. McCarthy has gotten himself a place in the history books even if he doesn’t manage to become speaker, because it’s been 100 years since a speaker wasn’t elected on the first vote.
The House is supposed to get started again at noon ET. Daily Kos will be covering it throughout.
RELATED STORY:
Kevin's second big day more humiliating than the first as he loses the sixth round
McCarthy did manage to close out Wednesday with what passes for a win for him this week, though: He managed to get the House to vote to adjourn, 216 to 214, rather than resuming the votes in the evening. On that vote, all Democrats present held together against adjourning and were joined by four of the anti-McCarthy Republicans—but two Democrats weren’t there to vote. If Reps. Tony Cárdenas and Adriano Espaillat had been there, it would have been deadlocked. Thanks, guys!
But that was the half-assed high point of Wednesday for McCarthy after another day of abject failure, in which he lost his fourth, fifth, and sixth speaker votes. He’s getting ready to come back for a third day, though. Hope really does spring eternal, I guess, and Daily Kos will have continuing coverage of McCarthy’s quest.
RELATED STORY: McCarthy gets reprieve, wins adjournment vote. Humiliation to resume tomorrow
In Wednesday night meetings with Republican holdouts, McCarthy tried something new. He had already surrendered on many of their demands, so you’d think he didn’t have much left to offer, but on Wednesday, he seems to have progressed to abject surrender and maybe some groveling.
Pardon me for asking, but how is that in any way a “compromise”? And how will the people who were already voting for McCarthy feel about the specific things he’s giving away.
The kicker, of course, is that once again, McCarthy is trying to win a job that involves counting votes to ensure success by making concessions that he has no guarantee or even strong reason to believe will work:
Wednesday afternoon, this was the very optimistic tone coming from McCarthy supporters:
And then McCarthy … basically surrendered unconditionally, at least until he finds out there are more conditions to surrender to.
So this is the state of play going into Thursday, the third day of voting: McCarthy has made still more concessions, but there’s reason to believe it won’t be enough to get him over the finish line. One thing is for sure, though. McCarthy has gotten himself a place in the history books even if he doesn’t manage to become speaker, because it’s been 100 years since a speaker wasn’t elected on the first vote.
The House is supposed to get started again at noon ET. Daily Kos will be covering it throughout.
RELATED STORY:
Kevin's second big day more humiliating than the first as he loses the sixth round