Republicans dropped Rep. Jim Jordan on Friday as their nominee for House speaker, making the decision during a closed-door session after the hard-edged ally of Donald Trump failed badly on a third ballot for the gavel.

The blocked-House impasse deepening, Republicans have no realistic or workable plan to unite the fractured GOP majority, elect a new speaker and return to the work of Congress that has been languishing since hard-liners ousted Kevin McCarthy at the start of the month.

  • Uglyhead@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I nominate Arnold Schwarzenegger for speaker.

    He’ll get enough votes from both parties. His dad also fought for and was ruined by fascism so he has a pretty big hard on against all of it. Sensible choice in nonsensical times.

    • Taako_Tuesday@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      The doors really open wide when you consider that the nominee can be someone outside of the House. I nominate my 14 year old nephew, i think he’d at least do better than any republican in congress.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        1 year ago

        Exactly.

        Democrats can (and should) go out and find excellent, apolitical candidates. National heroes. We can’t get Jeffries, OK. Understood. You can’t all agree on much, but you are united in not wanting a Democratic political operative as speaker. Understandable.

        Can any of the 221 GOP representatives stack up against former astronaut Scott Kelly? How about a random 9/11 firefighter? Any of the 66 living Medal of Honor recipients?

        Any candidate for speaker think they can compare favorably to any of these people?

        The speaker does not need to be a member of Congress, and the Speakership does not need to be a political position. Let’s establish a tradition where if we can’t get a partisan majority for speaker, we look for our candidate from the nation as a whole.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I wish he could, but that puts him second in line for the presidency and he wasn’t born a natural US citizen.

      • Pickle_Jr@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        That’s actually not a concern in regards to Gov. Schwarzenegger. IANAL but requirements for speaker of the house are somewhat lax; some people argue that a candidate doesn’t even have to be a member of the house.

        In regards to being in line for presidency, succession would skip over Gov. Schwarzenegger until succession finds someone who does meet requirements should such a need arise.

      • Uglyhead@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The fact that he couldn’t become POTUS would only be a plus in Dems in the house voting for him for speaker.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Which is kinda a dumb rule because Schwarzenegger has a lot more loyalty to the people than Trump ever did, despite where both were born.

        It also lead to the whole debate about Obama’s birth, which was just a technical debate rather than relevant at all to how good of a president he could be.