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Who Is in Disarray, Exactly?
Below, a screenshot of part of the front page of the New York Times online at this very hour. Question: Which indicates greater disarray? The inability to elect a new speaker of a large, complicated, and divisive body, or the inability to match a headline with a story?
Published in General
Neither compares to the disarray in Obama’s foreign policy.
The disarray is globalized.
In the grand scheme of things, of course, the House disarray might matter not at all in a few years.
It could matter, if someone unexpected is pulled out of would-be retirement and does a surprisingly credible job. Or if the Republicans fall apart so badly as to affect the presidential race. Or if Paul Ryan ends up being eaten up by the Speakership over the next year and a half rather than setting the policy agenda at Ways and Means. But it also really might not matter who is Speaker, and in that case it might not matter much how long it takes the caucus to figure it out.
Actually according to my intelligence the Russian missiles fell in Iraq.
Can we be certain the text and headline are unrelated?
Journalists, heal thyselves.
Apparently it’s all the Republican’s fault.
Unfortunately, Foxnews.com is running a story saying McCarthy’s withdrawal is due to the undesirablness of the speakership. It has nothing to do with the giant foot in his mouth.
Peter,
Exactly! Obama’s idiot foreign policy has the world burning. Obama’s idiot domestic economic policy has given us seven years of zero growth. The designated democrat replacement has openly committed multiple federal felonies and perjured herself multiple times while she and her husband are caught red handed in a multi-billion dollar scam.
The runner up replacement is a real live full blown idiot socialist. Obama doubles down on global warming that doesn’t exist and has promoted a massive disastrous health care law fraudulently.
We have some weak people in leadership roles in the Congress and we are weeding them out.
Things are looking up for Republicans.
Regards,
Jim
I don’t see “disarray” in the House, at least not in the matter of the Speaker’s chair. We have a Speaker now, and he’ll stay in place until we have another. The business of the House is still being conducted.
A vote for a new Speaker will be scheduled in good time. Or maybe not, now that Mr. Boehner is no longer sure of keeping the chair in his camp. (Cryin’ John, meet Kevin the Cave-In. What the heck happened there?)
Being of the camp which is, shall we say, displeased with Mr. Boehner’s leadership, I welcome this orderly upheaval.
Regarding the NYT, meh. They can’t shoot any straighter than the Russians can.
So we have a bit of a contest and debate as opposed to a Soviet style election, if some wish to call that “in Disarray” I am content with that.
For any in the broader media who may perchance pay interns to scour conservative discourse such as Ricochet: Democracy is messy children, it will all work itself out. No reason to get too frantic about these little disputes, now you have some warm milk and take a nap. It will all look better in the morning.
I think we are in disarray, and not just because of the House Speaker thing going on. Being without a House Speaker is a reflection of the disarray we have in the GOP in general. We have seventeen candidates running for president with no one with any experience getting 10% of the Republican electorate. Three non politicians are leading in the primary polls, with a blowhard, crass non-Republican Trump in the lead. The base is ready to throw the establishment out the window. We have a sitting senator calling the senate majority leader a liar on the floor of the Senate. We have litmus tests on every credible candidate (Jeb is a third Bush, Rubio betrayed on immigration, Christie hugged Obama, etc) that no candidate passes a majority of the party.
All that SCREAMS DISARRAY!
If you’re happy with the Boehner/McCarthy story, who’s your alternative? If you want Ryan you have reason to be hopeful… but otherwise, this looks like it could simply end up with Boehner as the ultimate lame duck.
But agree that the upheaval is of the orderly type. No constitutional crisis here. We’re not even close to the British Labour Party’s mess: they managed to get a party leader the parliamentary party overwhelmingly opposed, and their system isn’t set to handle that.
It’s not so much worse than Virginia politics… the Democratic and Republican frontrunners for governor both took themselves out of the race recently. In both cases the alternatives were pretty obvious and wanted the job more than Paul Ryan. But we didn’t get minute-by-minute breathless coverage, because that election is months away. The only difference was that McCarthy took himself out at the last minute… but delaying the election causes at most temporary embarrassment to the party.
I don’t need to have an alternative. Now that the ball is in play, the outcome will probably be positive. The worst that can happen is
we keepBoehner stays.Actually if you don’t want Boehner to stay you do need an alternative in pretty short order. Otherwise all you’ve produced is Boehner as the ultimate lame duck, and moreover owing you nothing at all.
Do you prefer Ryan to Boehner?
It’s unclear what you’re trying to argue, Leigh. My position is that I, not a member of the House but a Citizen of decided conservative bent with an animus towards the President and his administration, am enriched by any eventuality that increases the likelihood that the current leadership of the House will be replaced. That there is a chance Boehner will remain does not change that position, since I am confident that is the worst possible outcome – he’s just not going to be replaced by anyone worse.
I can be happy about the prospect of Citizen Boehner and expect that his departure will enhance my welfare, without giving any thought at all to who specifically should succeed him. Further, any such speculation on my part would be merely that – I’ve got no direct input beyond the blunt and diffuse impact of talking to people.
I’m not sure how I feel about Speaker Ryan. He’s not a great conservative, but that’s not what the Speaker’s chair is for.
Because you do not beat something with nothing. You as a citizen don’t necessarily have to have a specific name — but if you’re cheering on a revolt against Boehner you’d better demand that the revolters do. They had no alternative. Nobody who could get close to 218.
This matters, because that kind of blind protest with no goal in mind is dangerous. There has to be a candidate who can get the majority of the caucus — and then the majority of the House. 218 Republicans. And that candidate won’t be as conservative as all of them like, because that’s how politics works. It only takes a small minority to block a candidate who could essentially unite the caucus. If you have less than 218 — because a minority of “conservatives” know their base will cheer them on — we’ll end up with whoever can win a few Democratic votes. Let’s just say that won’t be the conservative option.
In that case, the revolt backfires against conservative interests. We need to know what we are about — and Boehner’s opponents didn’t.
Too bad we never seem to hear when there’s disarray in the Democratic ranks….