battle for the speakership

"I don't know what's worse here, the fact that the Secret Service is so petty that they broke the law to embarrass Jason Chaffetz, or the fact that they're so stupid, they didn't realize, if you want to embarrass Jason Chaffetz, just wait, he will do it for you." Watch our Jason have fun with charts! And later show his, er, gentle side as he breaks down at thought of, um, the death of President Lincoln? (Had he maybe just heard the news?)by KenAnd you thought that with "Sunny John" Boehner we had just about scraped the bottom of the barrel as regards speaker-of-the-House material?

The ridiculous House Benghazi committee may not have derailed Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, but it may well have wrecked Chuck Schumer's plans to win with his patsy, Patrick Murphy, in Florida, and it may yet derail Kevin McCarthy's bid for the speakership. Rachel Maddow was ahead of everyone on the story about McCarthy's unfitness for office.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Majority Leader of the House-- still on track, if just barely, to replace John Boehner as speaker-- pissed off everyone by admitting that the purpose of the Benghazi committee was to give hyper-partisan Republicans an opportunity to smear Hillary Clinton and bring down her poll numbers. Only a complete moron didn't know that from the day the committee was proposed, but it still isn't something you're supposed to say out loud, even on Fox News.

Today Jeb Bush is far from a top-tier candidate. In fact, if you judge by months of consistent polling, he's struggling between the second and third tiers of the GOP's so-called "deep bench." But he is top-tier in one sense: His family's wealthy connections have contributed over $120 million to him and his SuperPAC to get him into the White House. Without that money he'd be the next to follow Scott Walker out the door. He may be anyway.

Right-wing crackpot Daniel Webster (R-FL) was the first member of the extremist Freedom Caucus to say he wants Boehner's Speaker's gavel. He'll be the far right's sacrificial lamb against current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Oddly enough, both men are in electorally vulnerable districts. McCarthy's district, CA-23 has been solidly Republican and still officially boasts an R+16 PVI.

This morning at the Values Voter Summit, when Marco Rubio announced that Boehner was resigning from the speakership and leaving Congress on October 30, the very right-wing audience broke out into raucous applause that they were getting rid of a mainstream conservative.

The Walking DeadPolitico writers Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan were speculating that if the Republicans win a majority in the House again-- and with Steve Israel and the other lunkheads who run the DCCC, there's no chance they won't-- Boehner won't run for Speaker again, if the House Republicans don't ki

We often complain about a coterie of right-wing Democrats who consistently bolster the anti-family Republican agenda by backing Boehner on crucial votes-- not someone who does it once in a while because of his or her district's special circumstances but the New Dems and Blue Dogs who generally agree with Boehner's world view.

Plus some thoughtier thoughts than Bibi's on IranOkay, I admit I fell crazy mad in love with this "manufactured" image when our colleague Gaius Publius shared it in his pre-speech post yesterday, and I would likely have taken advantage of any remotely contrivable opportunity to recycle it.

This morning, Boehner-- once banished from the GOP leadership for handing out bribery checks on behalf of tobacco lobbyists on the floor of the House (see video above)-- was elected to his third term as Speaker of the House. "I'll never di it again," whined Boehner, when caught. "It's a bad practice; we ought to stop this." In 1923, another 3-term Republican Speaker, Frederick Gillett (R-MA), was elected Speaker for the last time.