I just don’t understand. Now Rep. Mike Gallagher is simply quitting, and has arranged his departure so that there can be no speedy replacement by Wisconsin — due to the date he has chosen, his replacement will have to wait until the next general election.
The title of the following Washington Examiner article seems apt:
There never was a Republican House majority
[…] Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and freeze the chamber for the second time this Congress in retaliation for the spending bill.
While Greene’s motion to vacate might draw the most headlines, the motion will not face a vote until she calls it up. It is really Gallagher’s retirement announcement that is the most consequential, because it reduces the mathematical majority for the House GOP to one seat, as there are already multiple vacancies in the chamber.
[…]
And if this untenable situation were not bad enough, Gallagher decided to flip his party a proverbial middle finger with the timing of his resignation. The Wisconsin congressman is leaving office on April 19, and any vacancy arising after the second Tuesday in April must be filled in the November general election, according to Wisconsin law.
[emphasis added — bdb]
Well, that’s just swell.
Despite the popular and catchy headlines about damage done by Gaetz et al, I still lay this at the feet of the establishment morons who dunked on the GOP conservatives because the establishment expected the big famous “red wave” of 2022, which of course did not happen. The establishment types were finally brought up short by Gaetz & co after rejecting numerous pleas and proposals fro my crunchy-con representatives. Then we saw shills like Hannity and Kilmeade launch shockingly feral attacks on anybody with a spine.
My previous Ricochet coverage: https://ricochet.com/1510264/the-road-to-gaetz/
Even Gingrich says that “Gaetz unleashed the demons in the GOP,” but these demons seems to be offended (or bought?) milquetoast establishment representatives abandoning the field. Hell, it was a dumb mistake to chase that one lying moron out of the chamber, and that was also an establishment miscue. Gingrich is more right than he would like to admit — this problem has existed in the GOP for a long time, and is an underlying fault line in the Republican civil war. The RINOs have always been with us, and it seems to require very little pressure to make them pop.
Speaker Johnson deserved better, and so did we. This slow-burn establishment tantrum is going to usher in Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, and let’s face it — it’s time for America’s second Muslim President, isn’t it?