Congress Follies

After Kevin McCarthy gave the trolls the power to oust him quite easily, well, one did -- Matt Gaetz. It looked like Scalise, who once said he was the David Duke without the baggage (and later was shot by a left-leaning unhinged person), would be the next Speaker of the House. 

He only received 110 votes in the Republican caucus vote, yes, but wasn't that supposed to be binding? It still was a majority. Not really. The person from my vantage point (not that I keep too much track) seemed like an ideologically acceptable type while still having some credibility as an institutionalist (he was in leadership in the past) did not get enough support. So the reality program goes on. Who will get the rose?

[There are six delegates with limited powers, but no floor votes, representing territories. Three are Republicans and they did vote in the caucus. I'm not sure but their vote might not be binding though at the end of the day the whole thing was moot.]

Meanwhile, there is the Senate. Military and ambassador positions continue to be blocked by Republican actions, not just Tommy Tuberville. This underlines, that even if Senate Republicans are somewhat more sensible than House Republicans (though the Senate Judiciary faction leaves a lot to be desired), they have little standing as credible legislators.  

Senate Democrats have a few issues, including Senator "I won't support child poverty funding" Manchin. The one lacking in credibility to govern is Senator Robert Menedez (D-NJ), who a majority of the Democratic caucus (including his fellow senator) says should resign. 

Already indicted for bribery, new charges were dropped that he acted as a foreign agent for Egypt. This is not well timed given the Israel/Gaza conflict, including Egypt's resistance to accepting Gazan refugees.  

Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog simply notes "serious." The NYT summary emphasizes that this charge directly challenges his loyalty to his constitutional oath. Ah. Sounds like our 14A, sec. 3 discussions. Legislators do take an oath. It often is not really treated as meaning much. This is somewhat unfortunate, especially as legislators fail in their responsibilities.

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SCOTUS Update

Meanwhile, a few odds and ends at SCOTUS. A couple stays (Roberts and Alito). The release of the December calendar, which is somewhat thin, but does include the tax case involving Alito's Wall St. Journal pal (Alito was ethically obligated to recuse but refused). 

I also saw a bit of old news referenced (h/t SCOTUSBlog) involving a large piece of marble that fell inside the Court last term, but for whatever reason they refuse to talk about it on the record. This sort of lack of transparency is standard. Sometimes, the press officer will release statements but rarely put them on the website.

Monday is an order day and then they pop up again at the end of the month for the November Argument. Will we have a speaker of the House by then?  ETA: Jim Jordan was chosen but (if more than Scalise) didn't get enough House Republican support to risk a floor vote. Oh well. Can't see some Republicans, including in Biden districts, vote for that character.