Dem
51
GOP
49
Here's another story that involves some very unusual coalitions. Not overt coalitions, mind you, but coalitions nonetheless.
Readers will recall that, on Monday of last week, the House Republican Conference released its ridiculous report arguing that Joe Biden has committed multiple impeachable offenses, and should be removed from office immediately. The report landed with a thud, and stole approximately 0.0% of the Democrats' thunder. House Republican leadership, from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on down, were happy to let that particular sleeping dog lie. The last thing the Conference needs, as several dozen swing-state Republicans try to hold on for dear life, is to take a controversial vote that has no chance of actually going anywhere.
The problem here is that the nutty Republicans have very different incentives. Their voters love, love, love kabuki theater. More importantly, the nutters don't really care about the Republicans keeping their majority. In fact, you could argue that the Freedom Caucus prefers to be in the minority, since that frees them up to engage in bomb-throwing 100% of the time, rather than having to spend at least some small part of their time pretending to govern.
You can see where this is headed. It is expected that one of the nutters—most likely Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) or Andy Biggs (R-AZ)—will file a privileged motion calling for Biden to be impeached. That will force Republican members to vote on the motion, either siding with Biden (angering right-wing voters) or siding with the whackadoodle Republicans (angering centrists and independents).
The Democrats aren't saying a word—after all, as the saying goes, if your opponents are shooting themselves in the foot, don't get in their way. However, they are silently root, root, rooting for the Krazypants Kooks Koalition. The blue team would love nothing more than a reminder, just a couple of months from the election, that anyone who votes to keep the Republicans in control of the House is voting for a Conference that is in the thrall of a faction that has absolutely no interest in governing or otherwise doing the work of the people. (Z)