Dem
50
Ties
1
GOP
49
There have been a few developments in the last 24 hours, as regards the jockeying for leadership positions in the next sitting of the United States Congress. To start, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has been reelected as the leader of his conference, and has been chosen as their official nominee for Speaker. However, the vote was 188-31, and those 31 are not bound to vote for their conference's nominee. So, if the MAGA crowd is willing to dig their heels in, then they can absolutely stop McCarthy from getting a promotion.
Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is keeping quiet about her plans until all of the remaining House races are decided. However, Puck, which is a politics-gossip-oriented website, somewhat like Wonkette, reports that the scuttlebutt is that she plans to stand down and back Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as her successor. Take that report with several grains of salt, but we pass it along nonetheless.
And finally, things remain tense among Republicans on the other side of the Capitol Building. There was a working lunch yesterday, and things got heated. Consequently, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has decided that he will challenge Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for leadership of the conference after all. Scott won't win, but this will please Scott's boss, Donald Trump, and will also generate a bunch more stories about how angry the Republicans are with McConnell. And every bit of oxygen that is devoted to that topic is one less bit of oxygen devoted to stories about how Scott blew it as chair of the NRSC, and managed to spend half a billion dollars without flipping a single seat (so far). (Z)