MyKev gets the boot

Created
Wed, 04/10/2023 - 09:00
Updated
Wed, 04/10/2023 - 09:00
Now what? In a 45-minute roll call vote, the House moved to oust McCarthy as speaker. The final vote was 216 to 210 in favor of Matt Gaetz’s motion to vacate, with eight Republicans joining Democrats. The rest of the Republicans are pissed. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), now the Speaker Pro Tempore, emphatically gaveled the House into recess subject to the call of the chair. pic.twitter.com/VfQWzIqMQZ — Greg Giroux (@greggiroux) October 3, 2023 Earlier today Matt Gaetz said he would support Steve Scalise for Speaker but I don’t see him taking it. He’s got a recent cancer diagnosis and is on chemotherapy. I doubt his doctor would recommend taking one of the most stressful jobs in the world right now. Who else? Nobody knows. This is the first time in history that a speaker has been ousted with a motion to vacate the chair. It was only tried once before back in 1910 and the speaker survived. And it divided the Republican Party for many years after: The House has never removed a speaker and hasn’t held a floor vote on removing a speaker in well over a century. In 1910, Speaker Joseph G. Cannon (R-Ill.) faced an intraparty revolt that, while unsuccessful, hardened divisions that paved the way for a Democratic takeover. Unlike McCarthy, whom lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seem to delight in calling “weak,” Cannon was accused of being a tyrant, according to writer Booth Mooney in “Mr. Speaker: Four Men Who Shaped the United States…