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Tag: speaker of the House

  • Rachel Maddow Explains What Could Happen In Speaker Debacle

    Rachel Maddow had a laugh or two at Republicans in Congress, who can’t seem to get their act together.

    John Boehner announced that he is retiring from his position as speaker of the house last month, leaving a vacant position that no one wants to fill.

    After his assumed replacement, Kevin McCarthy, backed out of the race and those being lobbied for the position, like Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy, explicitly said they will not do it, all hell broke lose.

    Now, Republicans are scrambling to find a replacement for John Boehner and the turmoil that has plagued the fractured party is coming home to roost.

    On Rachel Maddow‘s MSNBC show on Thursday, she explained a few options that might occur if Republicans can’t find a new speaker to replace John Boehner.

    Rachel Maddow described option number one, saying, “Someone could become viable. The Republicans could reach deep into their souls and find a Kumbaya center they didn’t know they had … and therefore find someone from Congress who could get 218 votes.”

    They are working on that, but in the mean time, there’s option number two to think about.

    Rachel Maddow said option number two is, “They could find somebody to do it who could get 218 votes, who is not a Republican member of the House. Technically, that is legal. It doesn’t have to be a member of Congress to be speaker, so it could just be anyone in the world.”

    Rachel Maddow listed Nancy Reagan, “that guy from Duck Dynasty” and a Chik-fil-A sandwich as possible selections for option number two.

    As for option number three, Rachel Maddow said, “There could just be no speaker. That would mean no votes, no convening, no offices, no nothing. Nobody can do business, and Congress just closes.”

    And for option number four, which will not be a great option for John Boehner or those in Congress who cheered his departure, Rachel Maddow said, “Which brings us to option four — which is honestly the most likely thing to happen — which is John Boehner is not allowed to quit.”

    That would make a few people angry!

    What do you think about Rachel Maddow’s list of possible outcomes for this speaker debacle? What do you think is most likely to happen?

  • Thomas S. Foley, Former House Speaker, Has Died

    Thomas S. Foley, the 57th Speaker of the House who won the seat after Jim Wright was accused of ethics violations, died on Friday from complications related to a stroke he suffered last year. He was 84 years old.

    Foley, who was born in Washington state, went to school to become a lawyer and entered private practice as a prosecuting attorney before going on to work for the state of Washington Attorney General. He later went on to the 5th congressional seat before moving up to majority whip and then majority leader.

    Foley was well-known for his willingness to work with Republican ideas; for instance, he frankly supported Ronald Reagan’s economic strategy despite the controversy it created.

    “There is a degree to which you can sort of push, encourage, support, direct,” he said in an interview with the New York Times. “But the Speakership isn’t a dictatorship.”

    Many felt that Foley was a casualty of the changes that occurred in the House during the ’90s; by 1994, the Republicans were accusing the Democrats of being out of touch and went on to win the first majority for their party in 40 years. Foley eventually lost his bid for re-election, the first Speaker to do so since the Civil War.

    “It was a time when the House was unraveling,” said congressional scholar Thomas E. Mann, “and so it was a very difficult period, especially for someone like Foley who had . . . such respect for the institution and reverence for it.”

  • Nancy Pelosi Won’t Be Speaker Again

    Nancy Pelosi Won’t Be Speaker Again

    House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will not be Speaker of the House again. However the 73-year-old says she will run again for her seat.In an interview published Friday in the National Journal, an inside-Washington magazine, Pelosi was asked whether she wishes to return to the top job. Pelosi said she did not, pointing out that she has held the post.

    “No, that’s not my thing. I did that,” Pelosi said.

    However, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill discounted Pelosi’s comments, saying they’re in line with her stock response when she’s asked about running for leadership positions. Hammill said Friday that she’s working hard to win back the majority for Democrats and that, if the effort is successful, her colleagues would elect their speaker.

    “She was simply saying she doesn’t ‘wish’ for things,” Hammill said.

    Pelosi became the first woman to ever be Speaker of the House in 2007, when democrats won the majority. She lost it to current speaker John Boehner in 2011 in the landslide 2010 midterm elections when Republicans gained control of the House. During the interview, Pelosi was asked if Congress, after the long recess was starting to feel “repetitive”. She replied,

    “Oh, it’s Groundhog Day Central. There’s no question about that. It’s not productive. It’s a waste of the taxpayers’ dollar. It’s a waste of our time. And it’s time that’s not working [for] the American people. [The Republicans’] agenda is nothing, and their timetable is never. But having said that, hopefully there are some among them that realize we have a responsibility to govern.”

    She was then asked if she thought it was because of the 20 or so Republicans dominating conversations from the right, she responded,

    “I think it’s more than 20. Here’s what I have to say to my Republican friends out there: Take back your party. This isn’t the Grand Old Party that used to have such great leadership. The name “Republican” in some ways has been hijacked by obstructionists. They are nowhere on the spectrum of trying to get the job done, and they claim the name without bringing to it the greatness, the leadership of the past.”

    The interviewer continued by asking if the disjointed Repulican party gave her some leverage when it came to them needing votes, she said,

    “I only have leverage if the other side is willing to govern. If they are willing to govern, we can find compromise. Not if they are just going to hold their ideological position and say, ‘We can be irresponsible because the Democrats are going to be responsible.’ “

    Read the interview in it’s entirety at The National Journal!