Another day, another lack of Speakership

[edschweppe]

Once again, Jim Jordan is not the Speaker of the House:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Jim Jordan failed again Wednesday on a crucial second ballot to become House speaker, the hard-fighting ally of Donald Trump losing even more GOP colleagues who are refusing to give him the gavel.

Next steps were highly uncertain as angry, frustrated Republicans looked at other options. A bipartisan group of lawmakers floated an extraordinary plan — to give the interim speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., more power to reopen the immobilized House and temporarily conduct routine business.

What was clear was that Jordan’s path to become House speaker was almost certainly lost. He was opposed by 22 Republicans, two more than he lost in first round voting the day before. No further votes Wednesday were scheduled.

[ ... ]

With Republicans in majority control of the House, 221-212, Jordan must pick up most of his GOP foes to win. Wednesday’s tally, with 199 Republicans voting for Jordan and 212 for Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, left no candidate with a clear majority, as the 22 Republicans voted for someone else.

I suppose the good news is that Jordan is only going through this exercise in humiliation once per day, rather than Kevin McCarthy's agonizing multiple-votes-per-day marathons. On the other hand, McCarthy never dropped below two hundred votes.