Speaker race and venal and ideological corruption

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) tried a third time today to become Speaker of the House of Representatives. He began with a defiant press conference, promising to press on. (Indeed, he invoked Orville and Wilbur Wright, who grew up in Ohio.) But in the last week, evidence has emerged that he faces more than the usual “machine ideology.” The venal corruption of his Party and Conference has stopped him yet again. Republican Party faithful have long suspected that “filthy lucre” distracts their chosen champions from standing for true justice. But never in the history of the Party – except perhaps in the Party’s bad choices of “provisional governors” (the carpetbaggers) during Southern Reconstruction – have the venal corruptors of the Party been as brazen as they are today. The men with the cash-filled briefcases handcuffed to their wrists aren’t hiding them anymore. They flaunt them, as if to say, “Eat your hearts out!”

Where the Speaker race stands

Herewith the press conference:

Two days ago, of course, Jim Jordan lost his second round. And to make things interesting, twenty-two Republicans voted for persons other than him. Today it was twenty-five, with two each Republican and Democratic absences. The House was supposed to meet again yesterday for a third round. But then Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Speaker pro tempore, gaveled the House to order and called for invocation and Pledge. Then he adjourned the House before a session could even begin.

That’s because at least two Republicans talked about introducing a rule change to vest in Rep. McHenry the usual powers of a Speaker – for eighty days. But Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was having none of that. “Speaker-lite!” he thundered, and “Constitutional desecration!” In that same interview he made clear he would sooner elect a speaker other than Jordan than empower someone temporarily.

Gaetz has a point. The current dilemma recalls an occasional dilemma in ancient Rome, when the two consular, or head-of-state, seats were both vacant. In such a case the Senate of Rome would appoint a succession of Interreges. The first Interrex would have but one job: to oversee the choice of a second. This second Interrex would then schedule consular elections, which were not up to the Senate alone.

Pat McHenry is a modern Interrex. He exists to choose a permanent Speaker, and nothing else.

Ostensible reasons why the holdouts don’t want Jordan

Today, twenty-five Republicans voted for a different candidate from Jordan. But one who voted against Jordan the first time (Indiana’s Victoria Spartz) has voted for him since. Since then, one holdout has admitted the gamesmanship to the media: staggered no votes, to show a growing opposition.

Rep. Don Bacon (R.Neb.) has given his bitter reasons. Jim Jordan won’t let the Election of 2020 go. Bacon would have people believe he has convinced himself that Joe Biden got eighty-one million votes. He did, but not from 81 million living, breathing adults who voted once only. The Rise of the (Voting) Machines has given us the Night of the Living Dead Voters and Cloned Voters. That any Republican refuses even to consider that possibility means one thing only. Such people dislike the nationalist populism that convinced a Donald Trump to make the Republican brand his own.

Bacon no doubt considers Trump a hijacker, an upstart, a violator of the Gentleman’s Agreement among political machine Republicans. This is the quintessence of RINO-ism – that a Republican need concern himself with Grandma’s Social Security check, Junior’s application to West Point, The Academy (Naval), and Colorado Springs, and otherwise rake in the take from the business lobbies. Donald Trump has a different kind of mind-set. So have Representatives like Gaetz, Bob Good (R-Va.), and most (not all) of the “Crazy Eight,” as Bacon calls them. “I hope you’ve all learned a lesson from the experience!” this schoolmaster-pretender actually said.

Excuses, excuses

This bitter grudge stands as only one reason. Erick-Woods Erickson has catalogued others:

• “Jordan can’t win! Let him stick a fork into it, and let’s move on!”
• “He’s never moved a bill to passage! His Speakership will be a disaster!”
• “Jim Jordan’s prior conduct in the job he had before he got to Congress was a scandal and an outrage!” (That, in addition to “we don’t want to hear any more about stolen elections!”

Excuses, excuses. Those who say such things, are really continuing Reason Number One. Which reads: “That upstart Trump and Me Too Upstart Gaetz will be the death of us yet! OUT OF OUR SIGHT!” That last is no idle outcry; several of these RINOs tried to expel Gaetz from their Conference! Of course, if they had, the would have relieved him of paying Conference Dues. That would have opened a can of worms upon which they prefer to screw down the lid tightly.

Except that those worms must be excreting something corrosive in their saliva. Because for two nights in a row, revelations have come to the fore that some business or businesses unknown, think they own the House Republican Conference. And they are offering cash and other favors to stop Jordan.

How to buy a Speaker

The first revelations came from Steve Bannon, who has a show he calls Bannon’s War Room. On Wednesday he had a Tea Party activist on his program. Then he dropped a bombshell of which not a single legacy media organ cares to take notice:

1. He has spies throughout cocktail-imbibing Washington,
2. Meetings have been taking place at the Capital Grill, a notorious lobbyists’ watering hole, and
3. The K Street Boys (and Girls) have been cutting all manner of deals with the RINO Holdouts to make sure they keep holding out.

By itself, that might not mean much. But last night, someone came to Jim and Joe Hoft with even more stunning revelations. (Jim Hoft runs The Gateway Pundit and is a named plaintiff in Missouri v. Biden; Joe has his own operation.) A witness named Erin Clements came to Joe with the revelations; Joe let Jim share it on the Pundit. This witness reveals that Steve Scalise – for all that he withdrew his name from consideration to be Speaker and voted for Jordan twice – has been orchestrating the RINO Holdouts all along. And he has done it with FTX money.

The Receipts

This witness has what Laura Loomer, James O’Keefe, and similar actors like to call The Receipts. And The Receipts include direct contributions from FTX to thirteen different campaigns, each for a RINO Holdout.

Actually CNAV can clear up some confusion. One of the campaigns is called the “Captain Higgins for Congress” campaign. The House has two Representatives Higgins, one Republican, one Democrat. Neither man has any Navy experience. But Representative Jen Kiggans of Virginia does. For ten years she flew CH-46 and SH-3 helicopters, under the handle of “Blossom.” Her one picture shows she was a lieutenant. But she also held many duties that could have involved her advancing to the rank of captain. Perhaps the “Captain Higgins for Congress” name was a slight exaggeration – but only slight. Furthermore, Kiggans, not one of the two Higginses, has voted consistently against Jordan.

Laying that aside, CNAV revealed in 2022, when the FTX Scandal broke, that Kevin McCarthy took FTX money himself. And he used it to finance RINO campaigns to “primary” MAGA candidates and incumbents. That’s why the Representative from Florida’s 11^th District is Daniel Webster, not Laura Loomer. (Daniel Webster is not only a RINO, but he dodders even worse than Biden, if one can imagine that.)

Donor mules

But there’s more. Federal Election Commission records show that Steve Scalise receives a suspiciously high volume of small donations. In fact he once receives ninety-eight in one day from the same individual. James O’Keefe knows the type: a donor mule. This is an often unwitting donor who gave out his contact information to the wrong person. It follows that both Party National Committees engage in “phishing expeditions” to get contact information from unsuspecting senior citizens. They then use these to make straw donations to their favored candidates. The senior knows nothing about this; they’re not foolish enough to drain his bank account. When James O’Keefe asked some of them about it, they reacted in bemusement rather than outrage. The only outrage is that sometimes these operations funnel money, in their names, to candidates they would never knowingly support.

What those people want in a Speaker

Any of a number of large corporations and corporate groups could be supplying these funds. That’s what K Street is all about. So what do those people want in a Speaker of the House? Someone who can continue the “coalition government” that McCarthy exemplified with his Continuing Resolution deal. He didn’t even have majority support in his caucus – so he cut a deal with the Democrats. That’s why Gaetz acted as he did.

But the big corporations, corporate groups, and trade associations want more of the same. They don’t care about social issues. (Or they didn’t before an enemy of humanity committed an incredible series of atrocities, and many university students actually cheered that enemy on.) They want is their lucrative government contracts, Great Projects – and an open border, the better to import cheap labor. (And equally cheap goods that undersell American farmers and manufacturers.)

These, sadly, include the nation’s armorers. So they’re angling for contracts for munitions, vehicles, ships, aircraft – and spare parts.

I had a guaranteed military sale with ED-209! Renovation contracts! Spare parts for 25 years! Who cares if it worked or not? Actor Ronny Cox, as OCP Sr. President Richard Jones, in RoboCop (1987).

You supply the pictures, I’ll supply the war. William Randolph Hearst, as portrayed loosely by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane (1941).

True enough, some wars are necessary. But Congress should make that decision without regard for scoring bonuses from the nation’s armorers! Yet those armorers don’t see it that way.

What happens now?

At time of writing, the House has not yet elected a Speaker. But the people have at least fourteen names of Representatives who could use a good primarying. They include Rep. Don Bacon, the ringleader, and thirteen others who took direct bribes from FTX. They are Representatives:

• Linda Chavez-Deremer (Ore.-5th),
• Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.-26th),
• Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.-2nd)
• Carlos Giménez (Fla.-28th),
• Tony Gonzales (Texas-23rd),
• Kay Granger (Texas-12th),
• Mike Kelly (Pa.-16th),
• Jen Kiggans (Va.-2nd),
• Mike Lawler (N.Y.-17th),
• Marionnette Miller-Meeks (Iowa-2nd),
• John Rutherford (Fla.-5th),
• Mike Simpson (Idaho-2nd),, and
• Steve Womack (Ark.-3rd).

These are the worst offenders thus far, but other guilty ones might surface. Erin Clements is still “checking the records” at time of writing.

Those people might have a chance to redeem themselves – or not. But voters should take note now – as at least one Republican already has.

Voters must decide two things: what kind of society in which they wish to live, and whom can they trust. The second part starts with recognizing the true alignment of anyone asking for their votes. Past experience, employment, and associations will go far to tell voters what they must know. Moreover, voters must recognize the degree of corruption – both venal and ideological – that RINO-ism entails. A voter who views politics in that light can recognize that some Republicans are literally no better than Democrats.

America does not want and cannot afford the kind of “coalition government” common to European parliamentary governments.