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Matt Gaetz FOR THE WIN

In yet another case of Florida schooling California, Republican House Representative Matt Gaetz (R FL-01) strong-arms Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R CA-20) into being a Republican. And it’s glorious. Steve Green has the story.


23 replies on “Matt Gaetz FOR THE WIN”

I agree with Bill’s point that is illustrates McCarthy will buckle to ANYBODY to get what he wants. That’s worrisome. I hope he feels his feet to the fire for at least the next two years.
What I did find even more troublesome is how- true to form- the dims voted for Jefferies on EVERY vote. Isn’t there a single one of them who does not support his communist approach? That’s scary.

I do think many of the freedom caucus part made the mistake of making the process personal rather than transactional. It would have been much better if they left things just ‘professional’.

On the rule to vacate the chair: What Gaetz et al. sought was simply a return to the rule that existed prior to Jan 2019. Not so radical.
I couldn’t find a definitive reference of when this rule was set, but did find several suggestions that this rule goes back to the 1837 adoption of Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 parliamentary manual.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson's_Manual)
After Dem’s took the house in the 2018 election, Pelosi changed House rules to say “that a resolution causing a vacancy in the Office of Speaker shall be privileged if offered at the direction of a party caucus or conference.” That is, supported by party leadership. Otherwise, the not-privileged motion is handled under regular order, that is, it only gets to the floor if the Rules Committee allows it. That is, never.(https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20181231/116-HRes6-SxS-U1.pdf)
You won’t find this covered anywhere in the legacy media.
For the 118th Congress, changes to the 117th House rules are documented here: https://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules118.house.gov/files/documents/Rules%20and%20Resources/118-Rules-of-the-House-of-Representatives-SxS-V2.pdf
You can find the actual rules (52 pages) and history of the rules back to 1999 here: https://rules.house.gov/rules-and-resources/rules-and-manuals-house-prior-congresses

The Holman rule is a rule in the United States House of Representatives that allows amendments to appropriations legislation that would reduce the salary of or fire specific federal employees, or cut a specific program. The rule was first enacted in 1876 and rescinded in 1983. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holman_rule)

That wasn’t irony. That was how it is supposed to work. Republics are messy.

The “one-person-can-call-for-removal-of-the-speaker” thing goes back to MADISON. Pelosi changed it (very recently) to requiring a majority of a party caucus vote.

Everything Gaetz and his team demanded was a piece of a return to regular order, restoring how the House is supposed to function. An order which was in effect on the House floor during the votes for speaker BECAUSE there was no “rules package” in effect yet. In other words, the order (or “the rules”) during those few days were the DEFAULT.

This was not irony. This was how it was designed to work. It was a REBOOT to DEFAULT.

One final thing: MTG and all those people at Fox were wrong. Gaetz, Bannon, et al. were right. Even Gingrich had to acknowledge that he was wrong. The ending compromise (which allowed the swamp creature to take the gavel) was because there was nothing else to ask for and for no other reason. But I would argue that the swamp creature’s willingness to do ANYTHING to get the gavel was not only what Gaetz was able to use against him, but BETTER than an idealogue. I think that there was no other person Gaetz could have gotten to the point of “there is nothing left to ask for.”

This restoration of proper order will in the long run turn out to be better for the Republic than even our top choices for Speaker. Every win we have going forward will date to this event. This is the turning point.

(Not that it’s going to be easy. Everything will be a fight.)

Talking to my sister earlier today she had mentioned that she saw on the news where so many people are leaving New York and California for Florida that Florida is having trouble finding accomodations for them all.

That’s called ‘voting with your feet’ and is draining wealth and tax base from New York and California at an unprecedented rate. Not only are there people who live in those two Leftist hell holes that want to see a political change, they’re willing to go to the extreme trouble and expense of moving somewhere more suitable.

Don’t count your average fellow Americans out of the fight yet. Americans may very well take back this nation.

I think this is the most hopeful development since Trump got elected. I hope to see an increasing frequency of this sort of thing. That will help delineate the differences between Conservatives and the bat-guano crazy Left. I think we can only win with those differences being cast in sharp relief.

If it’s not Trump, how about DeSantis/Gaetz running together in ’24? We have to get the ‘frickn democrats out of the Senate and the Oval Office. We’re being led by perhaps the most corrupt, and at the same time, the dumbest group of politicians in the history of the US.
Our future depends on it.

Careful Bob, you’ll get labelled a ‘never Trumper’ for saying things like that. I say things like that all the time, and I get called a never Trumper for it so I’m speaking from experience.

I liked Donald John Trump as a POTUS but he’s far from the only possible positive choice. We need to do what’s good for America and not necessarily what’s good for Trump. If the two coincide and he gets the nomination, that’s fine with me but if they don’t and he doesn’t, that’s fine with me too. I won’t vote for him in the primaries and let the cards fall where they may.

I think a Desantis/Gaetz ticket would be a positive thing. I’d vote for that.

Welcome to the never Trumper’s crowd, even if like me that’s not really what describes you. 🙂

I’m also not a never Trumper myself but …

I’m not a Donald J. Trump worshipper either. The idea that Trump and only Trump can save us is preposterous. His middle initial stands for “John”, not “Jesus”. We need to save the United States of America not vindicate Trump’s ego.

I too loved (most of) his policies as POTUS but I despise his inability to keep his own ego in check. Stupid accusations by stupid people flung every time I bring this abject failure up are wearying but not surprising. Usually someone assumes that somehow Trump ‘offended’ me. That allows them to lump me in as among the ‘bad’ people Trump is zapping with the zingers you mention. I’m not offended, I’m angered at the counterproductive, losing strategy of Trump sticking his own foot deeply down his own throat.

It’s his own unchecked ego that made the suggestion regarding suspension of the Constitution. A document I hold valid only second to the Holy Bible. God wrote the Bible so He gets precedence in all things but the U.S. Constitution is the greatest document ever devised by man for the governance of men. If we just FOLLOW the Constitution we’ll be fine.

I have a couple of friends who are also like me very politically aware. They come over here for discussions and we get together on every significant election night to watch the returns. In a discussion prior to the 2016 election when the candidate choices were either Hillary the Harpy or Trump I made it very clear to my friends that I had serious reservations about Trump. I had an even worse opinion of Hildebeast by at least an order of magnitude.

The way I put it to my friends was …

“If I have to choose between a clown and a criminal, I’m going to have to vote for the clown and hope for the best.”

There was much rejoicing here the night he won.

As POTUS I was very pleasantly surprised by most of Trump’s policies. He did pretty well in that regard. But …

He did exactly as I expected him to as a PERSON. Getting elected did nothing to help him shed that god-awful personality of his.

That personality makes him play right into the hands of the enemy on a regular basis. He doesn’t make the occasional faux pas that the other side can use against him, he feeds them truck loads of ammunition to fire at him constantly.

If we want to get back on track with this nation, that’s not the way it’s going to happen. Good policies or even great ones, get watered down, nullified or outright defeated when you give the bad guys the things they need to destroy you.

That’s why we find ourselves in the predicament we’re in right now. Joe Biden is a “trumplash” with reactionary policies that took us down the road to disaster. Just because Joe is fulfilling his promises to do the opposite in all things from Donald Trump.

Had Donald J. Trump been able to control himself and act like a real statesman (not a RINO, not a squish, a Jefferson or a Washington) when the nation needed him to do that, he would still be POTUS and we would still be enjoying the benefits of his better policies. Donald Trump put us here by playing into the hands of our enemies. Our enemies deserve a lot of the blame too, but Trump is also at fault and responsible for making it way too easy for them to get the upper hand.

If Donald J. Trump had channeled Ronald Reagan this nation would be leaps and bounds ahead of where it is now. This has nothing to do with being meek and mild — My Dad taught me there’s a way to call a man an a-hole and make him like it. Or at least act like he likes it. Reagan was an ace at that sort of thing.

Trump shat on all of us out of his ego hole. That’s the truth and there’s nothing admirable about him for doing that.

If he ends up the ‘lesser of two evils choice’ somehow, I’ll vote for him again and that means I’m not a ‘never Trumper’. I’m not a blindly worshipful low IQ fan boy either.

Now, all of that said — If Trump gets the nomination it’s CRUCIAL who is chosen as his running mate. That person needs to be a serious rising star personality in the Conservative Right. Someone like Desantis or Gaetz or Cruz or etc. Then that VP will be able to counterbalance some of the really dumb things Trump does and says. That person will be able to put us on track to elect him as the next POTUS when Trump’s term is up.

Of course Trump will never, ever allow a personality like that as his pick for VP. Too much danger of him outshining Donald Trump. Mike Pense was selected last time for this very reason. Pense is a solid Conservative and an admirable man but a milquetoast personality that had no danger of usurping the spotlight from Trump. While still maintaining the support of the Conservative base.

So I agree with you and hope Trump doesn’t get the nomination. If we’re going to take this nation back from the nutjobs and loonies we need a leader who knows how to handle all aspects of the job. Someone who knows how to play both offense and defense. Who won’t continuously feed the other side things that allow them to constantly beat him up whether merited or not.

Like it or not, admit it or not, personality and charisma are part of realpolitik. As we have seen, realpolitik can be a decisive factor. Trump has scads of personality and charisma, the problem is they’re the wrong kind for the Leader of the Free World.

No I don’t take the length of my comments into consideration, and I don’t mind the reputation. People can either read what I have to say or not as they choose. I’m not bothered in the least either way.

I write the way I think and speak. “Long comments” are not so long conversationally. If you heard me speak in verbal conversation you’d see that very few of my comments take more than a minute or two to speak out loud in a conversational voice.

I never got into Twitter and I do not subscribe to the idea that comments have to be 256 characters or less. I use as many characters as I need to say what I mean to say and sometimes, not always but often, that amounts to a ‘long comment’.

Since the advent of the internet I have found that if I don’t spell things out plainly and completely someone is bound to seize on any misinterpretation that they think will support their argument. So I try to cover all those basis and for a long time after I started posting internet comments my reply to such people was simply “Yeah, I already covered that. You got anything else? Or are you just trying to ‘win’ an argument?”

I’m not trying to win any arguments. I really don’t care enough to be bothered to do that. I’m stating my thoughts on the matter and I invite conversation on those thoughts whether someone agrees or not. Conversation isn’t the same as a combative, belligerent argument.

Which such conversation is something I still rarely run into and more often find myself arguing to defend complex, long considered opinions. I can’t do that in 256 characters or less.

Much of what I have to say is so deeply considered there’s really no way to say it except in essay form. If people want to have a conversation or just argue that’s up to them. I prefer conversation myself.

As for time, well I’m sitting at my desk this moment waiting for a new Google Workspace configuration to propagate so I’m not going anywhere anyway. This is most often the case, it might not be the same thing I’m waiting on but I’m usually waiting for something to happen on my or a client’s IT systems and have to sit right here in any case.

Commenting fills that time, I’ve already played tens of thousands of games of solitaire and Mahjong killing time. This is more interesting.

As for other people’s time — Well they can spend it reading my comments or not as they see fit. There are people on here whose comments I have no interest in wasting my time on and you’re not one of them. I may or may not comment on what you have to say depending on what I think of what you said.

All of this sort of thing still continues even today. People tend to take a single point of many out of context and criticise what I have to say. It’s the ‘out of context’ thing that ticks me off so …

Yup, long comments and no apologies. There’s no way I could have explained all of this to you without disregarding how many words it took to say it. And you did ask.

🙂

If it ends up being Trump on the ticket, that’s fine. Just please don’t pick another Mike Pence as his running mate. That clown was worthless.

I think Mike Pence is a good American, a good man and a good Conservative. The problem is that he’s nowhere even close to Presidential material and the VP should always be Presidential material.

That’s the point of having a VP, so that he can step into the Oval Office if something happens to the President and so he can continue successful policy by getting himself elected after a good President completes his second term.

The general strategy is to run the VP after a successful and popular President can no longer serve.

Mike Pence isn’t that guy and he never will be.

Now watch the real clowns in the Republican Party decide to do just that and try to run Pence in the 2024 election. As if we haven’t had enough disasters created by a former VP who should never have been a VP in the first place and sure as hell should never have become POTUS.

One big issue for many people concerning that ticket is that they are both from Florida. Usually they want to balance the ticket geographically for optimal results. I’m not saying I agree that that should be a major concern. Just remarking on historical precedent.

I had to re-read it four times to get the meaning of it, but the 12th Amendment prohibits both the President and VP being from the same state (since then the electors from that state could not vote for an executive not of their state).
There must be a better way to have phrased that requirement.

I’d be happy with a Desantis/Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, or any of a number of other prominent conservatives not from Florida on the ticket.

Donald Trump was a poor Conservative at best. He was probably the Left’s best bet if they had to stomach a Republican POTUS and they didn’t care about that, they cared about seizing power.

One thing Trump did do very well is prove that if you took the brakes off the economy and the American people we could create an economic powerhouse in very short order. Of course he also had the reverse inertia of 8 years of Obamanoid over regulation and economic repression waiting for the floodgates to open so that helped a lot.

Then he wasted all that inertia by playing into the hands of the enemy. He thought he was so very freakin’ popular that he couldn’t lose and it never occurred to him with his giant blazing ego that popularity was a two edged sword. He thought everyone loved him and they did not. The ones that didn’t used every dumb thing that came out of his mouth to sap his popularity. He still might have made it but the way he handled Fauci and allowed Fauci to handle covid were the straw that broke the camel’s back and …

The Democrat Left was waiting in the wings to use anything they could against him. Which they did including some very brassy cheating.

We need a real Conservative, someone like Ron Desantis, and a GOOD VP to pick up where Trump left off policy-wise. To kick the brakes off and let ‘er rip. I don’t really care who the VP is as long as he’s someone like Goetz, Cruze, Jordan or etc.

If we can get that we can get eight straight years of improvement across the board with another potential eight behind those first two terms and then this nation would be unbeatable and unstoppable.

Which is of course the opposite of what the Left wants to see in this country.

My ideal ticket would be Trump/Desantis. Trump would have to move to New Jersey to do it to get around the same state rule. Nut he could do that. Last time he ran from New York.

I say ideal, because it would allow Trump to take all the arrows the elft is going to send, and NOT care about re-election. He has shown to have wings of steel. And he could just decimate the swamp. THen, Desantis could get 8 years on his coat tails, and have spent 4 years learning the ins and outs of DC. Who to trust, who to eject. It took Trump 4 years to learn that, and he finally ended up with a decent team at the end (still regret Wray and Barr, but whatever).

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