What’s Ahead for the House of Representatives

There’s a title searching for an answer.  What will happen?  What could happen?

Almost anything could happen.  Suppose enough of the Uniparty Republicans get nervous about not sending enough money to Ukraine.  Maybe they’ll vote for the Democratic Minority Leader to be Speaker.  I’m sure it could happen.  Maybe Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise sit down and hammer out something that will keep Gaetz satisfied but won’t shut down the government.  Maybe that could happen.  The wackiest outcome would be Trump selected as Speaker by the Republican House members.  I give this outcome something like one in a hundred thousand odds.  And even if this was just a temporary situation, I’d love to see it happen.  The heads exploding in both parties would be tremendously entertaining.  And let’s face it.  Schadenfreude is just about the only thing left to enjoy about our situation.  After all, we’re all going rapidly broke while Joe Biden fiddles and burns everything down.

But it seems fair to say that whoever becomes the Speaker of the House should have to align himself with the Republican voters in this country and all the polls show that the one person that the clear majority of Republicans see as their leader is Donald Trump.  Both the Republican Speaker of the House and the Senate Minority Leader should be taking their marching orders from Trump.  And of course, that goes against their individual financial interests.  Because most of the slush money they get comes from voting for government policies for special interest groups like the defense contractors and banks and pharmaceutical manufacturers.  Doing the right thing for our country is way, way down near the bottom of their list of priorities.

But McCarthy getting bounced and all the anti-Trump congress critters like Liz Cheney getting primaried is starting to make an impression on the Republican politicos.  I think it’s starting to dawn on them that the gravy train could be over if they don’t move “doing the right thing for the country” much higher up the list.  And they don’t even have to believe in what they’re doing.  They can just follow the herd as Gaetz and others tell them what they must do to stay employed.  If Gaetz and his colleagues are clever enough they can convince the bulk of the Republicans that they have the leverage to put the screws to Joe Biden without paying a price in 2024.  After all Biden is despised by the majority of the country.  Making him pay a high political price for the problems he’s already caused should be within the abilities of moderately intelligent politicians.  Precedents are lying around in the recent electoral past.  The 2008 campaign that was a referendum against George W Bush should suffice as a template.

So, I’ve laid out the most optimistic scenario.  Everything more pessimistic is also out there.  Normally at this point I’d state that my guess was much, much gloomier.  But I don’t know, I don’t feel that down on the outcome.  It could be senility or something but I’m willing to see how this thing plays out.  Let Gaetz and his cohort sit down with Jordan and see where this is going to go.  Maybe a few good men can get something done in the cesspool that is DC.

Anyway, that’s enough words for now.  Enjoy the rest of the nice day we’ve been served up.