October 20, 2023 09:17 AM UTC

"Gym" Jordan And The Definition Of Insanity

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE 12:00PM: “Gym” Jordan withdraws from the race for speaker after losing a secret ballot among the Republican conference to try a fourth time.

What comes next is anybody’s guess.

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UPDATE 9:20AM: And it’s already over:

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Here we go again, as the Washington Post reports:

The House is scheduled Friday to vote for a third time on the embattled speaker nomination of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Speaking at a news conference, Jordan said that he hopes to be elected Friday, despite falling short of the majority of votes needed in the full chamber Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, he offered to pause his campaign and support temporarily expanding the powers of Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the interim speaker, to conduct some House business. The effort fell apart during a long and heated meeting of the GOP conference.

Colorado’s diehard Jim Jordan booster Rep. Lauren Boebert showed up this morning ready to stan:

Sadly for Jordan, however, the word from the rest of the Republican caucus “hardliners” is less enthusiastic:

A source describes the Jordan meeting with the holdouts like this: A direct, precise meeting in which JORDAN was told he will never be speaker. This group doesn’t want anything. They want Jordan to understand he will not be speaker.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 20, 2023

Jordan’s third round of voting is now underway, and the question is not whether he can actually prevail but whether he can simply stop the bleeding and not lose any more support. That outcome might set off another round of negotiations to swing holdouts.

Or Jordan continues to bleed, no speaker will be elected today, and the chaos goes on.

We’ll update when Round 3 is tallied.