Kevin's big day: Ongoing humiliation. House adjourns with no speaker elected

The vote for House Speaker continues, moving to round three in with Kevin McCarthy’s hapless bid to lead the tiny minority in the new Congress. This is the first time in 100 years that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot, something that’s only happened 14 times in history.

Stick with us for as long as this goes, and watch all the fun on C-SPAN. We could be here for days.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 10:29:12 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

They adjourned with a voice vote and did so enthusiastically, with the Clerk gaveling them out as quick as she could.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 10:28:08 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

And, just like that, the House adjourned until noon tomorrow. 

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 10:13:53 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

The hardliners are pushing adjournment to try to get them in a room to fight it out (again, they already did that this morning). They might have some support among not Freedom Caucus types. There’s a rumor that regular guy Rep. Tom Cole is going to call for an adjournment soon.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 9:58:02 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Now the only suspense is if they have a fourth vote tonight or move to adjourn for the evening. 

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 9:55:22 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

An addition to the “no” votes—Byron Donalds (FL) switches from McCarthy to Jordan so now there are 20 votes against McCarthy on the first go ‘round. 

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 9:46:39 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Apparently Republicans, like Ken Buck (CO) are going around telling reporters that Democrats will have to be the ones to save Republicans. “I think eventually you have to. The only thing that could change is Democrats walking away and not voting and then the denominator changes ….. Otherwise Republicans are gonna have to start moving around.” Note that it is ONLY Republicans and reporters who are talking to them that are talking about this. Not the Dems.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 9:24:47 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

If you happened to see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez trapped on the floor by whackjob Paul Gosar, he was apparently checking with her to see if what McCarthy told some members—that at some point Democrats would leave to help McCarthy out by lowering the vote threshold—was true. Nope, she told him. “We would never do that.”

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 9:17:56 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

So Jordan’s their man, with Chip Roy doing the honors this time and the same people voting for him this time. We’re still in the Bs, and McCarthy’s lost four votes. It’s a stalemate. The third round will end badly for him again. Jeffries will get the most votes, again. As someone said on Twitter, it’s one more election in America where the person with the most votes doesn’t win.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 9:07:59 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Aguilar is back up nominating Jeffries, again focus in the unification among Democrats, or if you will, their array.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 9:04:01 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Perfect. 

Just chatted with Nancy Pelosi. She said “We respect the institution and it would have been my hope that out of respect for the institution of the other side kind of resolve their differences because they have the majority”

— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) January 3, 2023

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 9:03:09 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

Round three begins. Steve Scalise is the McCarthy nominator for this round.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 9:01:03 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

For the past two and half years, the House has been operating with proxy voting—they have not all been together and have not all had to be spending time on the floor. So you have to wonder if they have the a) stamina, and b) patience to be willing to spend as long as it takes on this exercise.

UPDATE: Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023 · 8:31:41 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

As long as we’re speculating, could a coalition government happen? How many rounds would it take for enough Republicans to join with enough Democrats to find a reasonable alternative? Are there enough reasonable Republicans? I don’t see it happening, but we’re in completely new territory now.