The Republicans, now in control of the House, are trying to complete a fairly basic thing which is to choose their next speaker. It’s not going well.
Longtime California Congressman Kevin McCarthy is the obvious would-be winner but he can’t quite scrounge together enough votes. Eleven times–eleven!—McCarthy has been put up for a vote. And ten times he has fallen a few votes short. Why? The right flank of the party hates him. He is now reportedly offering his dissenters deep concessions: More members of the Freedom Caucus joining the House Rules Committee and the ability for just one irate member of the lower chamber to call a whole new vote to oust the speaker at any time (currently requires half the GOP).
Mainstream media coverage of the situation is basically just the word LOL typed out over and over, so I’ve had trouble understanding what is actually happening.
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