(gets out popcorn)

[james_davis_nicoll]

Chaos in Speaker selection leaves observers wondering if the living will envy the dead:

“It is total confusion — a banana republic,” said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), a Boehner ally, as he recounted seeing a handful of House Republicans weeping Thursday over the downfall of McCarthy and the broader discord. “Any plan, anything you anticipate, who knows what’ll happen. People are crying. They don’t have any idea how this will unfold at all.”

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I'd laugh, but a potential consequence (for the third and perhaps most likely time) is a default on the US national debt, thanks to our bizarre practice of requiring a separate House vote to make the payments on debt we already spent, and speaking of it publicly in a manner that makes it sound analogous to raising a credit limit.

It's quite possible that the only reason the global economy did not collapse in 2011 or 2013 was that John Boehner was not Tea Party enough to let it happen. Now he's gone.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

The weird thing about this is that it's probably the most convoluted way to keep boehner in the position he's "left" - basically until a new speaker is picked Boehner retains the position.

So by betting on the tea party republicans being too incompetent and divisive to allow the house to picking a new speaker, Boehner's backers in the house have forstalled the motion the tea party were threatening to do to remove Boehner from the position, thus ensuring he keeps the position.

Finally, the "moderate" republicans have figured out how to make the house's gridlock work for them.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

That only lasts a finite amount of time, though. Maybe no shutdown/default immediately, but it sounds like the faction currently in the driver's seat has a positive hankering to do it as soon as they get the opportunity, a few months from now.

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

Not if Boehner sticks it to them by cutting a deal on the debt ceiling and a few other critical items with the Democrats and the non-nutbar Republicans before he leaves. There's been some talk that he's been meeting with Pelosi and other senior Democrats to see if he can work out a deal, and losing his choice for his replacement might provide some personal motivation to flip them the bird.