31 thoughts on “The Mad House”

  1. In 1980, Billy Joel released his album Glass Houses, which won one Grammy Award ‘Best Male Pop Vocal Performance’ in 1981. Watch the official music video for ‘You May Be Right’

  2. a MAD house in another sense of the word

    the hill:

    Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) said on Wednesday that he thinks the House GOP conference would have devolved into a physical fight had lawmakers stayed in town after the Tuesday night vote to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) from his post. 
    “I’ll be really candid. I think if we had stayed together in the meeting last night, I think that you would have seen fists thrown,” Graves said in an interview on CNN’s “The Lead.” “And I’m not being dramatic when I say that.”
    Graves, a key McCarthy ally, defended the decision of the acting Speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), to send lawmakers home until next week.
    “There is a lot of raw emotions right now. I think it was best to let folks go back home, decompress a little bit and then come back together,” he said Wednesday. 
    [continues]

  4. Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy took aim at Democrats at a press conference following his ouster, and Stephen has a theory about Commander Biden’s behavior at the White House.

  5. Can one house member oust the Speaker pro tem?

    If so, they could just keep ousting.

    In the future all House members will experience 15 minutes of being Speaker.

  7. they aborted their own fledgling speaker fetus in the last days of his 3rd semester. 

    looks like they believe in choice after all.

  8. more from alternet on that eviction notice:

    U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Kevin McCarthy’s hand-picked temporary successor and acting Speaker, operated outside of carefully crafted House rules when he evicted Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the former Democratic Majority Leader, from their Capitol Hill offices just hours after Republicans ousted McCarthy as Speaker.
    That’s according to the top Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee, Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-MA), who previously served as the Chair of the Rules Committee. He says the “Speaker pro tempore” has one job only: help elect a new Speaker of the House.
    “I want to clear up some confusion,” McGovern wrote late Wednesday afternoon.
    “As an unelected acting Speaker pro tempore, @PatrickMcHenry’s job is to guide the House toward the election of a new Speaker. That’s it.”
    “His power is constrained by the plain text of Rule 1, Clause 8 of the Rules of the House,” said McGovern.
    Rep. McGovern said he is “alarmed” by McHenry’s order evicting Pelosi and Hoyer.
    “Given the plain text of the rule, I don’t think he has that power,” McGovern added.
    McGovern further explained, “The rule says he can only exercise as much authority as is ‘necessary and appropriate’ towards the end of electing a Speaker. The Rules Committee narrowly described this rule in 2004: an acting Speaker pro tempore serves ‘for the sole purpose of electing a new Speaker.’”
    “These rules were put into place after 9/11 to ensure continuity of government & quick election of a new Speaker in an emergency. Not to provide for a short-term Speaker due to Republican dysfunction,” concluded McGovern, who has served in Congress since 1997.

  14. All I can say to Kev and McHenry is that payback is a bitch and Hakeem Jeffries does not have the same guardrails as Nancy.  They might consider that.

  17. renee, thank you for that perfect word.  a precious treasure and so spot on.

    from Profanitees* site Cock Womble Definition, plus band, plus song, plus tee shirt. (profanitees.co.uk)

    Cock Womble is a noun.
    It means – someone who is a useless, bumbling fuckwit.
    Reddit also adds: The person is incompetent or inept; a person of little tact; a person with considerable overconfidence in their abilities, or lacks self-awareness.

    they also wrote about the song “cockwomble”:

    There is a song called Cockwomble. It’s by a band called the Bar Steward Sons Of Val Doonican. ​Hailing from Barnsley Rock City in t’North, The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican are on a mission! Determined to follow in their spiritual father’s immortal footsteps and keep his legacy alive, they have a talent for Bar-Stewardizing other famous people’s songs with new comedy lyrics. Instantly recognisable for their immaculate hair and their stylish choice of knitwear.


    at 2:24 minutes in they hold up a sign about the cockwomble in chief. note this was Recorded live at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention Sat 11th Aug 2018 when the cockwomble himself was prez.

  19. also from the hill:

    Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the House Minority whip, sent a “Dear Colleague” letter asking for her fellow House Democrats to show up for next week’s vote for Speaker of the House.

    “On Tuesday evening, our Caucus will convene for an organizational meeting to nominate Leader [Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)] as our candidate for Speaker of the House,” Clark’s letter read. “The Republican Conference may hold their internal election as early as Wednesday morning. At the conclusion of the Republican Conference nomination election, the full House will conduct an election for Speaker by manual roll call vote”

    “We do not yet have exact timing for when this vote will start and may have short notice,” Clark continued. “Your attendance beginning Tuesday evening is vital to ensure that House Democrats are ready to vote for Leader Jeffries as soon as the election for Speaker begins.”
    [continues]

    bet those sneaky cockwombly magaTs in critterville try to take a vote before the dems can get there.

  20. Trump on TV yesterday on migrants: “They’re poisoning the blood of this country.”

    Hitler in Mein Kampf: “The poison of foreign races is eating into the body of our people.”

  21. From a Quora thread:  Best Donald Trump joke:
    Trump is having tea with HM Queen Elizabeth.
    Trump: I think I’d like my country to be a Kingdom.
    HM the Q: Well, you’d have to be a King to do that, and you are not one.
    Trump: Well, an Empire, then.
    HM the Q: Again, not possible, because you are not an Emperor.
    Trump: Well, how about a Principality?
    HM the Q: Well, the same problem. You are not a Prince. I’m afraid The US will have to remain a country.

  24. Trump told Fox News Digital that he would accept a short-term role as House Speaker

    Says he would serve as a “unifier” for the Republican Party until lawmakers reach a decision on the next Speaker.

  25. Marjorie Taylor Greene campaigning for Trump. Her latest tweet: 

    “If Trump becomes Speaker of the House, the House chamber will be like a Trump rally everyday!! It would be the House of MAGA!!!

  28. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4241170-liz-cheney-thinks-jim-jordan-will-lose-speakership-vote/

    “Cheney doesn’t think Jordan will earn enough votes, but if he were to do so, she said there would “no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could defend against the Constitution.”

    “Cheney said Jordan was part of former President Donald Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election.”

    “Jim Jordan knew more about what Donald Trump had planned for Jan. 6 than any other member of the House of Representatives,” Cheney said. “Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election.”

    Hmmm, would Dems vote for Liz Cheney?

    Could they get enough Repugz on board? I mean, especially now that tRUMPsky’s leaking of classified info on our nuclear subs is out there, nobody should want him or one of his henchmen, like Gym Jordan, as SOTH.

  29. https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-us-submarines-australian-billionaire-anthony-pratt-classifed-documents-2023-10

    “After Trump left office, Australian billionaire and Mar-a-Lago Club member Anthony Pratt alleged in interviews with federal investigators that the former president disclosed details to him about US nuclear submarines around April 2021, anonymous sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.”

    “The sources said Pratt then went on to share that information with more than a dozen foreign officials, some of his employees, and journalists.”

    “The details, according to ABC News’ sources, revolved around the number of nuclear warheads US submarines could carry and how close they could get to a Russian submarine without detection.”

    “It’s unclear if Trump relayed accurate information, but investigators have asked Pratt not to repeat it elsewhere, sources told ABC News.”

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