Dem
51
GOP
49
When Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was chosen as speaker-designate by the House Republican Conference on Friday, he sent his colleagues home so he could work on whipping the 50 or so votes he needs to actually become Speaker. And when he said "whipping," it would seem that he meant it.
That's right. Displaying that Jordan/Freedom Caucus style that we've all come to love, the wannabe speaker has decided that persuasion and horse trading are for losers. And so, he and his allies have adopted an approach best described as "bullying." Team Jordan is siccing its right-wing media allies on the holdouts, in an effort to browbeat them into compliance. The would-be speaker has also arranged for his colleagues' office phone numbers to be disseminated widely, so that Trumpy citizens can leave vast numbers of demanding/threatening messages.
On one hand, this is very different from the approach employed by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA). That approach didn't work, so maybe... this will? On the other hand, in our experience, this kind of behavior is an excellent way to turn a "no" into a rock-solid, concrete, Jesus himself couldn't change my mind "Hell, no." At least one member of the House Republican Conference, namely Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), is in agreement, describing Jordan's approach as the "dumbest thing you can do."
Note that Crenshaw is saying that as someone who plans to vote for Jordan for the speakership. One might think that a military veteran who lost his eye in the service of his country would be a wee bit peeved that the Ohioan tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election results, and thus to effectively overthrow the government. And, if one did think that, one would be wrong. Crenshaw appeared on CNN yesterday and said if he was going to hold that against Jordan, he'd have to turn his back on the majority of the Republican conference. There's a lot of truth in that, we suppose.
Meanwhile, speaking off the record, a Republican member of the House told CNN that there are still at least 40 "no" votes on Jordan, including 20 "hard no" votes. The general sentiment among this cadre, according to this unnamed member, is "We cannot let the small group dictate to the whole group. They want a minority of the majority to dictate and as a red-blooded American I refuse to be a victim."
If Jordan can whittle down the opposition to, say, 10 Republican members, then there will be enormous pressure on those 10 to cave. That said, this is a very big "if." And even then, there's no guarantee that the holdouts will yield. It's embarrassing to the party to flail around like this, but it could (and probably would) be far worse if Jordan landed the speakership and then pulled a bunch of shenanigans at the height of election season next year. (Z)