Day 8 of the Reign of Terror of Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry continues! Okay, it’s not so much a “Reign of Terror” as it is a “Reign of Administrative Mediocrity” for McHenry, who successfully dismissed the House Wednesday afternoon when it became clear Republicans had not settled on a replace to ousted Paul Ryan photonegative Kevin McCarthy.
Scalice won the majority of the Republican ballots with 113 votes to 99 for Jim Jordan–the 212 votes equals the number of Democratic seats in the House–and according to the Washington Post, continues to work to get the 217 votes needed to be named Speaker. At least seven nihilists within the Republican conference–people like Marge, Santos, Boebert, Roy and Mace–have already said they will not support Scalise. Another half-dozen reportedly remain undecided.
At this point, no vote is planned for the House floor on Thursday, with Republican House leadership cognizant of the lingering embarrassment caused by the fifteen rounds of voting it took to install McCarthy for nine months. Scalise will work behind the scenes to sell his soul instead of having it done in front of CSPAN cameras.