That’s how it always works if you try negotiating with terrorists

About an hour before today’s attempts to vote for a Speaker of the House Joan McCarter of Daily Kos wrote about what has been going on behind the scenes. She began with:

Kevin McCarthy must be the most prominent and baffling victim of Stockholm Syndrome ever. He’s effectively been taken hostage by the domestic terrorists in the far right of his conference, and even though he has the power to break the bonds, he digs himself in deeper. Each concession he makes to his captors only results in more demands—that’s how it always works if you try negotiating with terrorists. The wild part of it is that he can stop it. He might not be able to save his own professional bacon, but he could save the institution of the House of Representatives by accepting reality.

And the moderate Republicans persist in ruling out the solution of a coalition government with Democrats. There are moderate Republicans angry about McCarthy handing out plum committee assignments to the maniacs instead of themselves. But this anger results in nothing more than grousing. The maniacs are saying they are glad the House is finally having a debate. McCarter is sure they – raised on Fox News – don’t know the meaning of the term. The “serious” Republicans are complaining that while these votes drag on there is no oversight of the Biden administration and that’s bad for national security. And Democrats sit in unity. “They’re not desperate enough yet,” said Rep. Elissa Slotkin. Rep. Matt Gaetz got up to talk today to nominate Jim Jordan (a nasty piece of work, yet doesn’t want the speaker job) before one of today’s votes. Walter Einenkel of Kos quoted a cringy part of Gaetz’ speech:

Let's start with purity. Many of you have seen the reports that there are negotiations to determine whether or not on this side of the aisle there can be a deal, a meeting of the minds, a grand bargain that would allow us to proceed with the speakership. And I want all of my colleagues to know, regardless of your perspective on me, how impure some of those negotiations have gone.

Gaetz talking about purity? Maybe you need to look up who he is. About halfway through that paragraph most of the Republican members walked out. Would have been a good moment to conduct another vote. The 11th vote happened yesterday. The 12th happened this morning. Joan McCarter liveblogged and wrote McCarthy got 214. FreedomWorks ended its opposition. But McCarthy needs 218 – the Freedom Caucus is still holding out. McCarter didn’t say what happened with the 13th vote, other than saying a 14th vote is needed. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Here’s a bit of what Bunch wrote:

With each failed vote, it gets harder to imagine this gang that couldn’t shoot straight passing a budget, or raising the debt ceiling, or dealing with a Ukraine-level crisis.

In the comments is a contest to answer the question, posted by George Conway: How many Kevin McCarthy’s does it take to screw in a light bulb? Shawn Garrett: Well, he needs a house first. Libera nos: The light bulb has to be above him, since he only knows how to screw up. Christoq tweeted an image of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown with Lucy saying, “One more try Kevin...” Editorial & Political Cartoons tweeted a quote by Edward R. Morrow from 1959:

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV merely demonstrated that not all the performers were well trained.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in a Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted some commentary:

Who would've guessed that a bunch of insurrection apologists would have trouble certifying a vote? —Jimmy Kimmel If only! If Dems took a shot every time McCarthy lost a Republican, we'd all be unconscious by now. —Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, responding to false accusations that she and her Democratic House colleagues were drinking during the failed MAGA votes to elect a Speaker.

Leah McElrath tweeted the 13th vote was the same as the 12th. And it looks like a deal was made for the 14th vote – to be held at 10:00 tonight. Why so late? Because McCarthy will win this one. Then the members can be sworn in. And then the Rules for the term can be passed under the cover of darkness – and without the required 72 hours to allow the members to actually read the document. Yeah, they’re hiding something. What they’re hiding is that McCarthy agreed to give control to the maniacs when it is time to raise the debt ceiling. And the maniacs have said several times they will use that leverage to extract huge cuts to Medicare and Social Security – and perhaps not raise the debt ceiling anyway. McElrath posted a copy of the 12 pages of rules. At the top is says the “pay-as-you-go” requirements have been replaced with “cut-as-you-go.” And they don’t mean the bloated Defense budget. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling will crash the economy – as in really crash it – definitely in the US but also in much of the world. So why would an elected member of Congress want to crash the economy? That sounds amazingly reckless. They couldn’t possibly be serious. Yes, they really are that serious. As for why – yesterday I wrote they have this profound inferiority complex. Blowing up the world is a way for them to say See! I really am powerful – more powerful than you because you couldn’t stop me! It sounds like some Republicans will vote with Democrats when the rules come up. So maybe? Marissa Higgins of Kos reported Fox News host Bret Baier tried to insinuate that Transportation Secretary and war vet Pete Buttigieg did something nefarious by taking his husband Chastain on a government paid trip to see the Invictus Games in the Netherlands. These games are for service members who are “wounded, injured, and sick.” That sounds like something our government should support. Buttigieg’s response:

And I guess the question on my mind is, if no one’s raising questions about why Secretary [Mark] Esper and his wife led that delegation―as well they should have—then why is it any different when it’s me and my husband?

Baier had little to say after that.