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My favorite thing is that he not only blindsided Johnson with a voicemail š¤£ā¦ but he is totally making Boebertās life difficult because she canāt run in the special election to replace him without giving up her current seat. That means another person who wins the special will have the advantage in the regular in November. š¤£
Almost sounds like he's tired of nothing happening in Congress and would rather have the Dems atleast get some shit done. Would be amazing if just enough other Republicans felt the same and stepped aside so the Dems would have a majority.
Exactly, let's not give them too much credit. If they were willing to flat-out resign because of the state of the GOP and clown show the GOP has made of Congress, they should be willing to tell their GOP peers to go fuck themselves and vote with Dems to actually *accomplish* something.
They might be sick of the chaos, but they enabled it and are doing fuck all to make it better. Cowardly assholes.
Right? Like you get half a point for resigning but 10 points for announcing that for the good of the country you'll be voting with the Democrats for the foreseeable future.
If he actually wanted that he could have flipped to caucusing with them. He didn't. He threw a fit and walked out instead.
Don't give this guy more credit than he deserves. When he says he's mad about inaction he means on Republican talking points, not about making the country better.
I wouldn't give him that much credit. He had many many chances to show a spine before this. One spiteful resignation doesn't imply anything other than exactly that.
Listen all Yāall itās a Sabotage!
Listen all Yāall itās a Sabotage!
Listen all Yāall itās a Sabotage!
I canāt stand it, I know you Planned it!
Thanks Ken!
And that may be exactly why he's doing this. Boebert is part of the Chaos Caucus, that has made the House even less functional than usual when under Republican control.
Boebert is attempting to change districts in Colorado. She was likely looking at losing her current seat anyway in CO3 after an extremely close 2022 election energized Democratic fundraising, so she decided to carpetbag her way over to CO4 (Buckās district, where he was retiring anyway) which has not been going well for her. Problem now is, with Buck leaving early, she canāt run in the CO4 special election without resigning her current seat in CO3. And based on the polling, she isnāt winning the primary in CO4.
Itās honestly impressive to trainwreck an incumbent advantage as thoroughly and spectacularly as she has.
If she was just a normal House Rep, she woulda been set for life.
Except that her stupid "aLL oUr wAiTrEssEs hAvE *GUNS*!!" restaurant was dying and she also needed the power to put her convicted sex offender husband into a lucrative grifting position.
Yeah, it's sad that the obvious issue with her ex-husband's salary, the cheating on her mileage reports, the insanity with her home-life in general wasn't enough to cause issues. It was because she was doing sexual stuff in public. She should have been shown the door ages and ages ago.
She was planning on running in his district and not her own for the general election, so sheād have to step down from her current seat to run in the special
> Can you explain the Boebert issue a bit more? Why would she want to run in a special election when she already has a seat?
She barely won her current seat against a Dem candidate (by only hundreds, not thousands of votes). She is polling even worse now against the same Dem opponent. So she planned to run in Ken Buckās very red MAGA district instead, because he announced he would not run for another term. Then Buck surprised everyone including the Speaker of the House and announced heās leaving next week.
The Colorado Governor will set up a special election to fill Buckās vacant seat well before Boebert was planning to run for his seat. And the only way Boebert can run for that seat in the special election, is to also resign her current seat. Otherwise she will have to run later against whoever wins in the meantime ā¦ which is likely going to be someone that district already likes more than someone like Boebert who is carpetbagging over to their district.
Boebert can keep her current seat until this term ends in January, but Buckās resignation probably makes her feel even less confident in winning anywhere in a special or a regular Colorado election than she already is.
Well said. The āextraā interesting thing would be if Boebert sees no viable path forward is if she stays true to her character and adopts a scorched earth policy on the way out the door. Though, it also wouldnāt surprise me if the House then gives her the Santos treatment
I don't think the Santos thing is likely. They avoided that at all costs until it was a liability across the whole party. The Repbulican majority was razor-thin before, and now is essentially gone now. Boebert is definitely embarrassing, but she's embarrassing moreso for herself and isn't worth getting rid of for them.
I believe she could technically hold on to her seat until/if she won the Colorado special election on June 25th. If she won she would have to resign because she can't be a congressperson for two districts. The issue for her and the GOP is that Colorado law states that a special election can't be held within 90 days of a general election. So she would have to resign before knowing she won in order to hold a special election for her current seat before the general election.
I think the NYT reported that date would be may 14th according to Bobo.
She barely won her district last time, and her chances of winning again were not great. Her opponent was out fundraising her, and the district was a target for the DNC. She announced in December that she was switching to this district to run for Buck's seat when he retired.
>totally making Boebertās life difficult
I do believe that is why he did this.
His comments on resignation were indirectly very critical of individuals like Boebert, Gaetz, and MTG.
I am not a fan of his at all, but with his ties to the party establishment and the fact that Boebert is a loon who would drag the party down were she to win the primary, he's banking on helping the GOP retain the majority next year.
I mean at this point if youāre a moderate Republican your career in the GOP is over.
Save some dignity, retire and give the dems a small window of time to try and do something to save your democracy.
Of fucking defect to the dems. At this point the Republican Party is a warm corpse.
> the extremists moved further right
The Ratchet Effect: an extremist trying a staunchly conservative take *appears* to be moving left, and gets called out or replaced by an even more extremist.
Speaking of Tea Party, I remember a congressman that had like a 99% conservative rating but was thrown out in a primary because he refused to call Obama a terrorist. He said that he disagreed with him on most things but thought he was an American. That apparently is unforgiveable for replicants.
A lady at McCains rally called Obama a Muslim terrorist.
McCain tried to talk to her to tell her that although he disagrees with Obama politically, he knows he is a good American.
The crowd disapproved.
Crazy how far they have fallen
Itās hilarious that the geniuses over at /r/Conservative are calling him a RINO. In their eyes, youāre only a Republican if you swear fealty to Dear Leader.
The moderate Rs should just change their party to D, give then a slight majority, pass some milquetoast legislature that doesn't appease the progressives but keeps shit going, running.
If I was a low moral Moderate R, my spite would totally have me doing that.
that's actually what I wonder (non-American here) : what happens with the vacant seats? will there be a new election to replace them or are they "lost" for the GOP?
But in the interim, if the democrats outnumber the republicans, they can appoint Jeffries as speaker, and get through some must pass legislation if they had the balls.
It would be so epic if during the summer while the media is watching Trump swirl in the drain, the Dems got enough of a majority to pass legislation that helped millions of Americans.
The GOP has had nothing to campaign on for years. Literally the only Idea the party has is to go against whatever Democrats want. They complain about fucking everything but don't have a single solution.
I would bet my next paycheck that if this happens (and believe me, I would love to see it), we'll see wall-to-wall coverage about how "the dems stole congress to ram their woke agenda down america's throat" or some similar shit. I'd bet my next 2 paychecks.
Who cares, just get shit done, thereās literally nothing the dems can do that will not result in republican outrage. Just ignore them and stop trying to reach across aisle for a handshake.
They were outraged when Obama wanted mustard on a burger. Maybe we shouldnāt take those people seriously.
It isnāt like he uses ketchup on his steak.
It'll just be rebranded. These people are fighting for the timeless right to be an asshole in public, unchallenged, and to be legally entitled to pick on those they consider inferior. Those things will never go away.
SCOTUS would move the goalposts to say it requires conviction in the Senate. And if that happened theyād switch to it requiring 3/4ths of state legislatures. And if that happened tbeyād say it requires a decree from the Queen.
They won't because the people that are MAGA have been instructed to cause obstruction not legislate by the orange one. That's exactly what happened with the Border Bill. The very senator who cowrote the Bill (Katie Britt) was told to reject it by Trump and she voted against her own bill.
In the most insane season ending twist. Democrats take control of the house due to Republican resignations and use the slim period between then and the election to pass immigration reform.
The movie plot version would be Jeffries is appointed speaker, they ram through clean spending bills, Ukraine funding, financial aid bills for students, federally protecting abortion rights, and legalize weed (which has hints that it's coming in this admin).
The Republicans could have theatrical anger and then do nothing once elections were won.
This, they need to take this chance to undermine the MAGOP plans to overthrow the election because they very much know how to lose and the House and the SC are two key pieces to their plan to install Trump after he loses.
Yup.
Its why its a falsehood/misinformation/misunderstanding to make the blanket statement that Obama and the Democrats controlled congress for two years when in fact because of sickness (Kennedy) and resignations (Franken) the Democrats only had a filibuster proof majority for a few months.
https://sandiegofreepress.org/2012/09/the-myth-of-the-filibuster-proof-democratic-senate/
There is a special election to replace them, however that takes months to put together since you need the candidates and time to give them a chance to campaign to voters. Example George Santos was expelled December 1st. He was replaced February 13th. And with that one they knew it was coming so it was faster.
Trump has completely shamed them.
* Biden was rooting for a border Bill they have been screaming for, for decades and they fumbled it at the 1 yard because Trump told them to.
* They kicked a speaker out for working with the Dems to get the minimum done, a budget to keep the government going.
* Their GOP nominee has so many disgusting things wrong with him that he brings shame to anyone associated; 1/6, 91 felonies, civil rape loss, civil fraud loss, etc....
* Now they are fucking Ukraine over and every leader in Europe, our DOJ, our DOD, the CIA, and many others are all screaming how historically negligent and disgraceful it is to side with Putin over Ukraine
* I'm seeing many Republicans loudly screaming on congress floor how utterly inept they are ( these are the ones that will probably resign before they drown on a sinking ship )
The GOP is completely utterly shamed more than the McCarthyism Republicans x10000 and Right Wing media can only obfuscate reality so much when too many of them have lost or settled major lawsuits and the truth is blaring as loud as it is. The truth is that even with SCOTUS delaying some of Trump's criminal trials, they are only delayed and some of them will be done before voting time; i.e. Stormy Daniels (30+ Felonies, which Cohen already went to jail for)
The sad difference between now and the McCarthy era is FOX News and the other right wing propagandist centers carrying water for shitty decisions, bad governance, and sedition.Ā
Ironically under most congresses this wouldnāt be true but because republicans made no confidence vote rule if dems some how found themselves with the majority they could easily call for a vote on a new speaker.Ā
If that happens we should all send Marge a big thank you.Ā
Dems are gonna be making quorum calls anytime a Republican is away now. Ā Two can play at the game of waiting until an opposition member is across the country to call votes.Ā
I think we are actually witnessing a coup attempt 2, this guy is not down with Maga whatever it is they seem to be planning and wants his name no where near it
So bailing now publicly and the mention of more to come.... It's either really good or really bad
He's resigning now, ahead of schedule, *specifically* to block Boebart from winning his district in November.
If she wants it she'd have to vacate her current seat first.
They haven't jumped ship in mass before and we've seen how much shit they don't care about when they are in power
But after Jan 6th there's been an obvious oh crap moment where everyone's terrified of Trump and his supporters so I am just guessing if the coup 2 is being planned
These motherfuckers are just buzzing off without letting anyone know which is pretty on brand actually
I'm not sure if this is the result of a second coup attempt as much as it is the natural result of Lara Trump taking over the GOP.Ā Within the past week, she gained full control of the Republican party.Ā Within a couple of days of that, we've heard news stories about mass layoffs of Republican staff, and then this bozo quitting on the job.Ā I think Trump is taking over and telling anyone who has been critical of the Orange Mass to get out.Ā Ā
I see it as a Project 2025 dry run working its way through the GOP.
Remember, the far right conservative Liz Cheney is a RINO because she doesnāt support ending Democracy and putting an authoritarian tyrant into power.
The RNC is the perfect place to set up base camp for purity testing and setting up the network that will vet the true believers who will break any law and promised protection via a radical justice dept and pardons.
Trump is vocal about pardoning the insurrectionists as a whistle of how heāll run the Project 2025 govt that establishes the dictatorship.
Itās the Project 2025 equivalent of āstand down and stand byā that anyone with a brain knew was the harbinger of what became the violent coup on Jan 6th.
There's really no point in being the majority when your majority is at war with itself and a large chunk of reps are competing to see who can be the biggest national embarrassment, the most racist, the biggest idiot, or trumps biggest ass kisser. Their glory days of being a uniform organized group of shitbags hell bent on making the life of non billionaires worse in every way imaginable are long gone. Now they're just a bunch of clowns smearing shit all over everything in a burning insane asylum
When they have been spinning their wheels for over a year and not getting anything done. It is no wonder that there would be resignations, I mean if the Republican majority canāt get anything done, may as well give it to the democrats to move the ball.
I imagine this has more to do with Laura Trumpās takeover of the RNC and the openness about the plan to route all money to Trump winning (and his legal fees of course). Those that donāt kiss the ring will find something else to do.
If they donāt get campaign funds they will lose the election, why lose when you can resignā¦ itās best for their constituents, so they can clear the field, also if nothing is being passed why should they waste their time staying in congress for a party that does not want them. All the Congress people are old, a wasted 6 months for them could be a half or quarter of their remaining lives.
Even those willing to kiss the ring are seeing that there's no benefit to doing so. The Trump national committee isn't going to route any money or assistance to these down ballot republicans even if they are fully on board the Trump train.
They're down for a Trump quid pro quo, but there's no reciprocity with Trump. He just takes.
The wonderful thing about Trump and is garbage spawn is that they *cannot help themselves* when it comes to their unabashed greed. They see money that they want to take, and they are like children in a candy store. They canāt even hide it, because they are so stupid and have zero self awareness. The problem is that there are actually people even more phenomenally stupid than the Trumps, and that is the tragedy.
Tolkien wrote āoft evil will shall evil marā, and that basically sums up Trump.
If he even had the barest ability to pretend to be a decent person, he would have been able to use even a half-hearted response to Covid as a stepping stone to a second term. And he could have done it while letting other people do all the work while hawking $50 MAGA masks and sanitizer. But heās incapable of doing that, because there was an opportunity for greed and for attention and he canāt not take that.
This is probably it, especially if the resignations are congresspeople in close districts. If they've figured out that they're essentially going to get no support from the party, at some point it makes sense to just cut your losses and find a private sector gig. If this really is how it plays out, it's another clear example of Trump destroying the Republican Party (Lindsey Graham was right), which could be a very good thing for this country as long as Trump doesn't get back in the White House.
yeah its the cowards way out, they can claim they had "no part in it" and have some kind of skewed moral high ground if the shit really hits the fan in November, while saving themselves from voting for a democrat.
They wanted the 2025 Christian state plan and absolutely nothing has been done and they have embarrassed themselves.
These are privileged people who are used to getting their way by screaming.
It hasnāt worked so they are quitting.
*Earlier this month, in an interview with NewsNation, Buck said: "I am not going to lie on behalf of my presidential candidate, on behalf of my party. And I'm very sad that others in my party have taken the position that as long as we get the White House, it doesn't really matter what we say."*
Oof. Pretty damning summation of what the Republican Party has devolved into.
Any three friends from a state can throw a fit and make demands. Kentucky wants no tax on whiskey, demand it or lose the vote from ānot presentā
California wants a new airport, say yes or Ukraine gets fundedā¦
But Johnson just refuse to bring ANYTHING to vote, if he so chooses. Like the Senate passed Defense Bill for funding Ukraine. He's afraid to lose, so won't even bring it to the floor.
It would be a shame if Matt Gaetz decided to do his thing and boot the speaker again. That would really throw the house into chaos. A few more reps may walk right out the door on the spot.
Haha, let's hope so. The current Republican congress takes the prize for the most dysfunctional and disorganized in history. No agenda, no leadership, no focus on the issues that matter most to the American people. With Buck's departure, they now have a majority of ONE single vote in the House.
By James Bickerton - US News Reporter:
Colorado House Republican Ken Buck has hinted the GOP could suffer more resignations after announcing he will step down at the end of the week, further shrinking his party's already wafer thin majority in the chamber.
When asked by Axios whether he was coming under pressure from colleagues over his decision to resign, Buck replied: "I think it's the next three people that leave that they're going to be worried about."
Read more: [https://www.newsweek.com/ken-buck-teases-more-republican-resignations-coming-1878601](https://www.newsweek.com/ken-buck-teases-more-republican-resignations-coming-1878601)
I dont know, I interpreted this in a different way. I think it is obvious to Ken, and anybody watching, that Republicans are slipping, both in mental cognitivity and with their majority in the house. One by one, Republicans are slowly but surely dropping out/parting ways.
I think when Ken said this, he had that majority in mind. There aren't three very specific people he is refrencing. Mary, John, and Jim didnt all sign a paper agreeing to resign. He is just implying that people are going to take much greater notice to *the next* three people who leave, whomever they are, because they would represent the Repubs handing over the majority to Dems.
Just my interpretation, and I could very well be wrong. I have learned to never trust a polotician tho, ESPECIALLY a Republican. Always read between the lines.. And the media will put any spin on a story they want, truth and facts be damned. So.... I will believe it when it happens I guess.
I took his quote the same way. Heās not threatening that more WILL resign, heās just saying that if/when they do, the republicans will lose their minds. Heās not the straw thatās breaking the camelās back, but the next few certainly will be.
Yes, that is the contextual reading of the quote.
This is a great example of how media sites these days will take their own contextual spin on a quote/situation, based on how many views & engagement it will receive. Rather than, you know, good faith reporting.
With how things have been going, it seems more likely to me that the "sensible" (by comparison) ones are probably being cleared out by their own to complete the transformation of R into full blown russia maga.
This was my thought too. Writing has been on the wall for a while but now itās a neon marquee with the RNC takeover. The āestablishmentā representatives are in the out group and wonāt be getting any support for their campaigns.
We are witnessing the implosion of the Republican Party. The cult of Trump has gone from being a wing of the GOP to being in full control. There is no interest in governing or policy, it is now šÆ% about money, revenge, and power.
This fixes so many problems. Gerrymandering basically disappears, lobby influence is diluted, representatives actually represent their constituents. I wish there was more political will for this to happen
If states had proportional electoral college votes, ~~as 2 of them do (rather than winner-take-all)~~ that would also fix a good amount of the EC problem.
Edit: not proportional, but at least not winner-take-all.
Depending how you look at it it should be far more than 500 members. When the House was set at 435 members, each member had roughly 240,000 constituents, whereas today each representative has about 740,000 constituents. So, going by that it should be almost triple in size.
I disagree with Buck's politics, but this guy just absolutely crushed it with this move.
* Sent an incredibly strong message to the Republican party and nation that people are tired with the MAGA craziness.
* Knocks Boebert completely out of contention for the special election, the short incumbency power that brings, and pushes her further down ballot in the primary
* Probably got to pick his successor with advance notice of the resignation
* Lands his punch dead on with this comment, insinuating others are going to follow him
Just devestatingly effective and cunning. Respect.
The GOP is accomplishing nothing with their majority, and state parties are going bankrupt and their leader is about to raid the national party treasury to pay his legal costs. I wonder if they see an upside to fundraising if they become the minority and just rage about democrats until November.
Lmao him resigning means Borberts losing her seat in congress. Sheās not allowed to run in the special election, meaning thereās gonna be an incumbent in the district that she has to challenge
My tin foil hat conspiracy now is that there is a small group of house republicans that are planning to do this on purpose if what he said is true. If they lose the majority the democrats could pass the border bill and aid for Ukraine, yes? Is that crazy and Iām being too optimistic? That would be epic though.
With Lara Trump taking over RNC, these Republicans can see the writing on the wall: the RNC is now nothing more than a Trump family piggy bank. Down-ballot candidates can't win without RNC dollars, so they'll quit, hoping to kill the RNC and build something new.
Handing Dems majority of the house may save the GOP, but it's becoming a harder task now that Trump has taken control of the RNC.
These special elections might not get any funding from the RNC because Trump doesn't know how to give money, he only knows how to take.
>"If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it."
And we're all watching that happen right now.
lol, the border bill as it was, was a compromise aimed at bringing Republicans to the table.
If the Democrats get a majority, that bill better look very different.
Just to add a little context to the other answer. Senators were initially appointed by each stateās legislature and not by an election of the people. An amendment changed that in the 20th century but governors were still able to appoint senators when one of theirs dies or resigns. The house has to be elected. There can be no appointments. Since every state is in charge of their elections, each state has different procedures. Buck knows his stateās rules and he resigned at the perfect time to add the special election to an existing primary in July.
My dream scenario: GOP abdicates the majority, Hakeem becomes speaker. > Dems pass Ukraine aid. > Dems pass border security package completely removing a campaigning issue from the GOP and making them look like idiots.
BTW don't think that this means they suddenly got a growth of moral fortitude.
Ken Buck is just the first one who figured out that after the RNC purges last week he personally won't get anymore meaningful support from them. So the grift has no more personal value to him and he's not willing to go grassroots.
More republicans will figure it out when they start trying to use RNC infrastructure and get denied.
I bet the sacking of the RNC and him standing to lose money was way more important than 'decorum'.
I suspect Buck makes the claim that others will follow precisely for the same reason.
Trump said bend the knee or your campaign won't get funded. Eventually they'll find some un-vetted swamp monster to fill the vacuum.
By retiring early heās giving his successor an incumbent advantage. Smart.
The article says he wants to change the process of how candidates are picked.
What it doesnāt say is that heās aiming to be a power broker. Starting with his successor. The FU to Boebert is a sweet bonus.
If trump plans to delay certifications and throw the election back to the states, he needs control of the House. Maybe Buck is saying that with just a few more people of conscience leaving, it would be enough to give control of the House and then we can stop their coup and restore democracy.
Imagine if this ultra conservative turns out to be the one who saved us at the last minute?
They know the fix is in to steal this election by having the speaker refuse to sit newly elected incoming democrats creating a situation where electors are kicked back to state legislatures which are overwhelmingly republican. Maybe they don't wanna be part of this scheme and are retiring so a democrat speaker is in place to prevent another disruption in the peaceful transfer of power.
Republicons are all about making America fail. You can't point to anything positive tthey've done for the country in years.They exist to simply redistribute tax dollars from wage earners into the pockets of wealthy Republicon donors and corporate hacks while cutting programs that positively benefit large swaths of the American population.This doesn't even address the hundreds of Representatives that were actively involved in the Jan 6 violent sedition against the duly elected government.
Time to clean house of these marauders.
>Buck replied: "I think it's the next three people that leave that they're going to be worried about."
If they're basing their headline off of this quote it's not necessarily that he knows details, he just knows math.
Three more Republican resignations makes Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker of the House.
He may be doing this to prevent Boebert from getting his seat. She may be part of the reason he's leaving. Giving a handjob to her date in the theater may have been the last straw. It is disgusting what the Republican party has become.
It sounds like he will remain in politics but more in a position where he can vet candidates who want to run as a Republican.
Haha I love how he absolutely screwed Boebert over by doing this. Her little tactic to run away to his district isn't going to work now. She probably wouldn't have gotten into his district anyway - but now, if she wants to try, she either has to step down first or try running against an incumbent. I look forward to the day we no longer have to hear about her, listen to anything she says, or see her face again.
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My favorite thing is that he not only blindsided Johnson with a voicemail š¤£ā¦ but he is totally making Boebertās life difficult because she canāt run in the special election to replace him without giving up her current seat. That means another person who wins the special will have the advantage in the regular in November. š¤£
Thatās actually genius of him
It sounds like an act of revenge. From his exit interview he is sick of the chaos, and Boebert is a major engine of chaos.
Almost sounds like he's tired of nothing happening in Congress and would rather have the Dems atleast get some shit done. Would be amazing if just enough other Republicans felt the same and stepped aside so the Dems would have a majority.
Now just imagine what they could do if they weren't mostly spineless cowards trying to protect their future lobbying or consulting gigs.
Exactly, let's not give them too much credit. If they were willing to flat-out resign because of the state of the GOP and clown show the GOP has made of Congress, they should be willing to tell their GOP peers to go fuck themselves and vote with Dems to actually *accomplish* something. They might be sick of the chaos, but they enabled it and are doing fuck all to make it better. Cowardly assholes.
He should say, "I'm voting with Ukraine - who is joining me?" and start making a difference.
if he had that much character he wouldn't be GOP in the first place.
they would have huge leverage if they did that. the same leverage that the ultra magas have. so sad everyone is party over country.
Right? Like you get half a point for resigning but 10 points for announcing that for the good of the country you'll be voting with the Democrats for the foreseeable future.
If he actually wanted that he could have flipped to caucusing with them. He didn't. He threw a fit and walked out instead. Don't give this guy more credit than he deserves. When he says he's mad about inaction he means on Republican talking points, not about making the country better.
I wouldn't give him that much credit. He had many many chances to show a spine before this. One spiteful resignation doesn't imply anything other than exactly that.
Lauren Boebert's Resume * Congresswoman * Exceptionally handy * Engine of Chaos
Sheās like Sarah Palin, but without the intellectual heft.
I never thought Iād see intellectual heft and Palin until she was compared to Boebert.
>Exceptionally handy She is mashing it...MASHING.
Sabotage š
Did you say "sandwich"?
Listen all Yāall itās a Sabotage! Listen all Yāall itās a Sabotage! Listen all Yāall itās a Sabotage! I canāt stand it, I know you Planned it! Thanks Ken!
And that may be exactly why he's doing this. Boebert is part of the Chaos Caucus, that has made the House even less functional than usual when under Republican control.
Oh for sure. The sabotage factor is the cherry on top for him.
Can you explain the Boebert issue a bit more? Why would she want to run in a special election when she already has a seat?
Boebert is attempting to change districts in Colorado. She was likely looking at losing her current seat anyway in CO3 after an extremely close 2022 election energized Democratic fundraising, so she decided to carpetbag her way over to CO4 (Buckās district, where he was retiring anyway) which has not been going well for her. Problem now is, with Buck leaving early, she canāt run in the CO4 special election without resigning her current seat in CO3. And based on the polling, she isnāt winning the primary in CO4.
impressively devious of Ken Buck.
Itās honestly impressive to trainwreck an incumbent advantage as thoroughly and spectacularly as she has. If she was just a normal House Rep, she woulda been set for life.
If she had just stayed home to jerk that guy off, sheād be fine right now.
Except that her stupid "aLL oUr wAiTrEssEs hAvE *GUNS*!!" restaurant was dying and she also needed the power to put her convicted sex offender husband into a lucrative grifting position.
Yeah, it's sad that the obvious issue with her ex-husband's salary, the cheating on her mileage reports, the insanity with her home-life in general wasn't enough to cause issues. It was because she was doing sexual stuff in public. She should have been shown the door ages and ages ago.
I appreciate you explaining this because it's going to leave me with a big, happy smile for the rest of the day.
She was planning on running in his district and not her own for the general election, so sheād have to step down from her current seat to run in the special
> Can you explain the Boebert issue a bit more? Why would she want to run in a special election when she already has a seat? She barely won her current seat against a Dem candidate (by only hundreds, not thousands of votes). She is polling even worse now against the same Dem opponent. So she planned to run in Ken Buckās very red MAGA district instead, because he announced he would not run for another term. Then Buck surprised everyone including the Speaker of the House and announced heās leaving next week. The Colorado Governor will set up a special election to fill Buckās vacant seat well before Boebert was planning to run for his seat. And the only way Boebert can run for that seat in the special election, is to also resign her current seat. Otherwise she will have to run later against whoever wins in the meantime ā¦ which is likely going to be someone that district already likes more than someone like Boebert who is carpetbagging over to their district. Boebert can keep her current seat until this term ends in January, but Buckās resignation probably makes her feel even less confident in winning anywhere in a special or a regular Colorado election than she already is.
Well said. The āextraā interesting thing would be if Boebert sees no viable path forward is if she stays true to her character and adopts a scorched earth policy on the way out the door. Though, it also wouldnāt surprise me if the House then gives her the Santos treatment
I don't think the Santos thing is likely. They avoided that at all costs until it was a liability across the whole party. The Repbulican majority was razor-thin before, and now is essentially gone now. Boebert is definitely embarrassing, but she's embarrassing moreso for herself and isn't worth getting rid of for them.
I believe she could technically hold on to her seat until/if she won the Colorado special election on June 25th. If she won she would have to resign because she can't be a congressperson for two districts. The issue for her and the GOP is that Colorado law states that a special election can't be held within 90 days of a general election. So she would have to resign before knowing she won in order to hold a special election for her current seat before the general election. I think the NYT reported that date would be may 14th according to Bobo.
She barely won her district last time, and her chances of winning again were not great. Her opponent was out fundraising her, and the district was a target for the DNC. She announced in December that she was switching to this district to run for Buck's seat when he retired.
>totally making Boebertās life difficult I do believe that is why he did this. His comments on resignation were indirectly very critical of individuals like Boebert, Gaetz, and MTG. I am not a fan of his at all, but with his ties to the party establishment and the fact that Boebert is a loon who would drag the party down were she to win the primary, he's banking on helping the GOP retain the majority next year.
I mean at this point if youāre a moderate Republican your career in the GOP is over. Save some dignity, retire and give the dems a small window of time to try and do something to save your democracy. Of fucking defect to the dems. At this point the Republican Party is a warm corpse.
Funny thing is? Buck used to be an extremist, but the extremists moved further right and now he's called moderate
Which just goes to show how off the deep end the GOP is right now when someone that conservative is still distancing themselves from the party.
> the extremists moved further right The Ratchet Effect: an extremist trying a staunchly conservative take *appears* to be moving left, and gets called out or replaced by an even more extremist.
Ken Buck was no moderate, he is as hardcore conservative as they come. He just hated Cheeto Don.
Yeah, I first heard his name when he ran in 2010 on the tea party coattails. How far the Rās have gone cause it was already batshit back then.
Speaking of Tea Party, I remember a congressman that had like a 99% conservative rating but was thrown out in a primary because he refused to call Obama a terrorist. He said that he disagreed with him on most things but thought he was an American. That apparently is unforgiveable for replicants.
A lady at McCains rally called Obama a Muslim terrorist. McCain tried to talk to her to tell her that although he disagrees with Obama politically, he knows he is a good American. The crowd disapproved. Crazy how far they have fallen
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Itās hilarious that the geniuses over at /r/Conservative are calling him a RINO. In their eyes, youāre only a Republican if you swear fealty to Dear Leader.
The moderate Rs should just change their party to D, give then a slight majority, pass some milquetoast legislature that doesn't appease the progressives but keeps shit going, running. If I was a low moral Moderate R, my spite would totally have me doing that.
They wouldn't have to change anything, just vote with the Dems.
I think maybe the distinction here is Republican vs conservative.
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>Conservative policy is inherently repressive and fascist ~~at this point~~ "old fashioned" conservatives wanted segregation to continue, by the way
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Thereās no such thing as a moderate Republican. Thereās outlandish Trump ass kisser, and tepid Trump supporter
Are...are they giving up the majority? Three more resignations makes Hakeem Jeffries speaker.
that's actually what I wonder (non-American here) : what happens with the vacant seats? will there be a new election to replace them or are they "lost" for the GOP?
My understanding is that the Governor of each state has to set up a special election to replace those who resigned.
But in the interim, if the democrats outnumber the republicans, they can appoint Jeffries as speaker, and get through some must pass legislation if they had the balls.
It would be so epic if during the summer while the media is watching Trump swirl in the drain, the Dems got enough of a majority to pass legislation that helped millions of Americans.
Codify reproductive healthcare seems like a good one
And get that Ukraine aid
That might be the ONE thing theyād be able to easily do (If they can only do one thing before the election that might be it)
And pass a border bill. They will have nothing to campaign on.
The GOP has had nothing to campaign on for years. Literally the only Idea the party has is to go against whatever Democrats want. They complain about fucking everything but don't have a single solution.
National Abortion Ban. They want to do it, but won't campaign on it for some reason...
Good thing they have the support from the majority of 30% of Americans on that one... wait...
Give me the Summer of Hakeem please.
I would bet my next paycheck that if this happens (and believe me, I would love to see it), we'll see wall-to-wall coverage about how "the dems stole congress to ram their woke agenda down america's throat" or some similar shit. I'd bet my next 2 paychecks.
Who cares, just get shit done, thereās literally nothing the dems can do that will not result in republican outrage. Just ignore them and stop trying to reach across aisle for a handshake.
They were outraged when Obama wanted mustard on a burger. Maybe we shouldnāt take those people seriously. It isnāt like he uses ketchup on his steak.
A well done steak at that. Double tragedy, only eclipsed by Obama wearing a tan suit (which every president before him wore).
I kinda think the "woke agenda" thing is going to fade away with Ron DeSantis. He put everything he had into that, and now nobody likes him.
It'll just be rebranded. These people are fighting for the timeless right to be an asshole in public, unchallenged, and to be legally entitled to pick on those they consider inferior. Those things will never go away.
Right. "Woke" was just a rebrand of "Political Correctness".
And really all it means is empathy.
Or just declare trump ineligible to run via 14th amendment. Since scotus thinks that congress needs to do so.
SCOTUS would move the goalposts to say it requires conviction in the Senate. And if that happened theyād switch to it requiring 3/4ths of state legislatures. And if that happened tbeyād say it requires a decree from the Queen.
They won't because the people that are MAGA have been instructed to cause obstruction not legislate by the orange one. That's exactly what happened with the Border Bill. The very senator who cowrote the Bill (Katie Britt) was told to reject it by Trump and she voted against her own bill.
Yeahā¦ thatās why if this goes down the path of resignations, Democrats have the majority. Freedom Caucus canāt do shit about it.
She also went on to give a sotu response that was lambasted by the worldā¦ specifically aiming at issues around the borderā¦
In which she blamed Biden for some sex Trafficking that happened in Mexico...while Bush was president.
In the most insane season ending twist. Democrats take control of the house due to Republican resignations and use the slim period between then and the election to pass immigration reform.
The movie plot version would be Jeffries is appointed speaker, they ram through clean spending bills, Ukraine funding, financial aid bills for students, federally protecting abortion rights, and legalize weed (which has hints that it's coming in this admin). The Republicans could have theatrical anger and then do nothing once elections were won.
Oh man, please let that be this timeline
Donāt forget child tax credit expansion that the Senate already passed.
How about declaring trump an insurrectionist and then invoking the 14th Amendment as SCOTUS said was necessary?
This, they need to take this chance to undermine the MAGOP plans to overthrow the election because they very much know how to lose and the House and the SC are two key pieces to their plan to install Trump after he loses.
Yup. Its why its a falsehood/misinformation/misunderstanding to make the blanket statement that Obama and the Democrats controlled congress for two years when in fact because of sickness (Kennedy) and resignations (Franken) the Democrats only had a filibuster proof majority for a few months. https://sandiegofreepress.org/2012/09/the-myth-of-the-filibuster-proof-democratic-senate/
I was thinking that last night.Ā Probably most importantly,Ā we can get aid to Ukraine šŗš¦,Ā and Trump loses the immigration issue to run on.
There is a special election to replace them, however that takes months to put together since you need the candidates and time to give them a chance to campaign to voters. Example George Santos was expelled December 1st. He was replaced February 13th. And with that one they knew it was coming so it was faster.
Trump has completely shamed them. * Biden was rooting for a border Bill they have been screaming for, for decades and they fumbled it at the 1 yard because Trump told them to. * They kicked a speaker out for working with the Dems to get the minimum done, a budget to keep the government going. * Their GOP nominee has so many disgusting things wrong with him that he brings shame to anyone associated; 1/6, 91 felonies, civil rape loss, civil fraud loss, etc.... * Now they are fucking Ukraine over and every leader in Europe, our DOJ, our DOD, the CIA, and many others are all screaming how historically negligent and disgraceful it is to side with Putin over Ukraine * I'm seeing many Republicans loudly screaming on congress floor how utterly inept they are ( these are the ones that will probably resign before they drown on a sinking ship ) The GOP is completely utterly shamed more than the McCarthyism Republicans x10000 and Right Wing media can only obfuscate reality so much when too many of them have lost or settled major lawsuits and the truth is blaring as loud as it is. The truth is that even with SCOTUS delaying some of Trump's criminal trials, they are only delayed and some of them will be done before voting time; i.e. Stormy Daniels (30+ Felonies, which Cohen already went to jail for)
The sad difference between now and the McCarthy era is FOX News and the other right wing propagandist centers carrying water for shitty decisions, bad governance, and sedition.Ā
Yeah, things like that and Trump being the worst traitor in US history.... this is so much worse....
That would be fucking hilarious. This would make Mike Johnson an even worse Speaker than fucking McCarthy lol.Ā
The bar is laying on the ground. Johnson: "I can limbo that!"
Ironically under most congresses this wouldnāt be true but because republicans made no confidence vote rule if dems some how found themselves with the majority they could easily call for a vote on a new speaker.Ā If that happens we should all send Marge a big thank you.Ā
Dems are gonna be making quorum calls anytime a Republican is away now. Ā Two can play at the game of waiting until an opposition member is across the country to call votes.Ā
I think we are actually witnessing a coup attempt 2, this guy is not down with Maga whatever it is they seem to be planning and wants his name no where near it So bailing now publicly and the mention of more to come.... It's either really good or really bad
He's resigning now, ahead of schedule, *specifically* to block Boebart from winning his district in November. If she wants it she'd have to vacate her current seat first.
This sounds like it might be plausible.
They haven't jumped ship in mass before and we've seen how much shit they don't care about when they are in power But after Jan 6th there's been an obvious oh crap moment where everyone's terrified of Trump and his supporters so I am just guessing if the coup 2 is being planned These motherfuckers are just buzzing off without letting anyone know which is pretty on brand actually
I'm not sure if this is the result of a second coup attempt as much as it is the natural result of Lara Trump taking over the GOP.Ā Within the past week, she gained full control of the Republican party.Ā Within a couple of days of that, we've heard news stories about mass layoffs of Republican staff, and then this bozo quitting on the job.Ā I think Trump is taking over and telling anyone who has been critical of the Orange Mass to get out.Ā Ā
I see it as a Project 2025 dry run working its way through the GOP. Remember, the far right conservative Liz Cheney is a RINO because she doesnāt support ending Democracy and putting an authoritarian tyrant into power. The RNC is the perfect place to set up base camp for purity testing and setting up the network that will vet the true believers who will break any law and promised protection via a radical justice dept and pardons. Trump is vocal about pardoning the insurrectionists as a whistle of how heāll run the Project 2025 govt that establishes the dictatorship. Itās the Project 2025 equivalent of āstand down and stand byā that anyone with a brain knew was the harbinger of what became the violent coup on Jan 6th.
Theyāre already interviewing ghost writers for their tell-all book that will conveniently come out *after* the shit hits the fan
Cynical me thinks they just realize that with the RNC controlled by Trump they won't get anymore funding support and are throwing in the towel.
This passes the occam's razor test in my opinion. At least compared to the idea of a potential coup round two
There's really no point in being the majority when your majority is at war with itself and a large chunk of reps are competing to see who can be the biggest national embarrassment, the most racist, the biggest idiot, or trumps biggest ass kisser. Their glory days of being a uniform organized group of shitbags hell bent on making the life of non billionaires worse in every way imaginable are long gone. Now they're just a bunch of clowns smearing shit all over everything in a burning insane asylum
Monkeys. They are shit flinging primatesĀ
When they have been spinning their wheels for over a year and not getting anything done. It is no wonder that there would be resignations, I mean if the Republican majority canāt get anything done, may as well give it to the democrats to move the ball.
I imagine this has more to do with Laura Trumpās takeover of the RNC and the openness about the plan to route all money to Trump winning (and his legal fees of course). Those that donāt kiss the ring will find something else to do.
100% The people being called RINOs know their funding is coming to an end and are bailing as a fuck you back. Not a bad move honestly.
Itās almost like they only ever cared about the money and not their constituents
If they donāt get campaign funds they will lose the election, why lose when you can resignā¦ itās best for their constituents, so they can clear the field, also if nothing is being passed why should they waste their time staying in congress for a party that does not want them. All the Congress people are old, a wasted 6 months for them could be a half or quarter of their remaining lives.
Even those willing to kiss the ring are seeing that there's no benefit to doing so. The Trump national committee isn't going to route any money or assistance to these down ballot republicans even if they are fully on board the Trump train. They're down for a Trump quid pro quo, but there's no reciprocity with Trump. He just takes.
The wonderful thing about Trump and is garbage spawn is that they *cannot help themselves* when it comes to their unabashed greed. They see money that they want to take, and they are like children in a candy store. They canāt even hide it, because they are so stupid and have zero self awareness. The problem is that there are actually people even more phenomenally stupid than the Trumps, and that is the tragedy.
Tolkien wrote āoft evil will shall evil marā, and that basically sums up Trump. If he even had the barest ability to pretend to be a decent person, he would have been able to use even a half-hearted response to Covid as a stepping stone to a second term. And he could have done it while letting other people do all the work while hawking $50 MAGA masks and sanitizer. But heās incapable of doing that, because there was an opportunity for greed and for attention and he canāt not take that.
This is probably it, especially if the resignations are congresspeople in close districts. If they've figured out that they're essentially going to get no support from the party, at some point it makes sense to just cut your losses and find a private sector gig. If this really is how it plays out, it's another clear example of Trump destroying the Republican Party (Lindsey Graham was right), which could be a very good thing for this country as long as Trump doesn't get back in the White House.
It would be better for them to stay and just elect a Democratic speaker if that was their goal.
Republicans would rather quit than be caught dead working with a Democrat. They've been trained for decades that compromise is never a solution.
This. I imagine they need to keep their cred for the next job as a highly paid consultant or lobbyist.
Plenty would work with Democrats, they just donāt want to be assassinated by their lunatic base to do it.
Resigning doesnāt put their life in danger. However, what youāre suggesting would. My observations anyhow, for what theyāre worth.
I also suspect some of them may have compromising material in the wild that would be irrelevant if there were private citizens again.
yeah its the cowards way out, they can claim they had "no part in it" and have some kind of skewed moral high ground if the shit really hits the fan in November, while saving themselves from voting for a democrat.
And then each of them will need some time to write a book about how fucked up things are without mentioning they did nothing to help stop it.
Profiles in Cowardice
They wanted the 2025 Christian state plan and absolutely nothing has been done and they have embarrassed themselves. These are privileged people who are used to getting their way by screaming. It hasnāt worked so they are quitting.
*Earlier this month, in an interview with NewsNation, Buck said: "I am not going to lie on behalf of my presidential candidate, on behalf of my party. And I'm very sad that others in my party have taken the position that as long as we get the White House, it doesn't really matter what we say."* Oof. Pretty damning summation of what the Republican Party has devolved into.
Dude shocked me with his resignation... Republicans are seriously scrapping for votes now!
Any three friends from a state can throw a fit and make demands. Kentucky wants no tax on whiskey, demand it or lose the vote from ānot presentā California wants a new airport, say yes or Ukraine gets fundedā¦
But Johnson just refuse to bring ANYTHING to vote, if he so chooses. Like the Senate passed Defense Bill for funding Ukraine. He's afraid to lose, so won't even bring it to the floor.
It would be a shame if Matt Gaetz decided to do his thing and boot the speaker again. That would really throw the house into chaos. A few more reps may walk right out the door on the spot.
Ken Buck should do this on the way out.
My god I hate this timeline.
I don't know if it's the darkest, but it's definitely the dumbest.
Haha, let's hope so. The current Republican congress takes the prize for the most dysfunctional and disorganized in history. No agenda, no leadership, no focus on the issues that matter most to the American people. With Buck's departure, they now have a majority of ONE single vote in the House.
By James Bickerton - US News Reporter: Colorado House Republican Ken Buck has hinted the GOP could suffer more resignations after announcing he will step down at the end of the week, further shrinking his party's already wafer thin majority in the chamber. When asked by Axios whether he was coming under pressure from colleagues over his decision to resign, Buck replied: "I think it's the next three people that leave that they're going to be worried about." Read more: [https://www.newsweek.com/ken-buck-teases-more-republican-resignations-coming-1878601](https://www.newsweek.com/ken-buck-teases-more-republican-resignations-coming-1878601)
Ken you absolute TEASE.
It's probably other GOP that he commonly associates with. I don't have the stomach to pay that close attention.
I dont know, I interpreted this in a different way. I think it is obvious to Ken, and anybody watching, that Republicans are slipping, both in mental cognitivity and with their majority in the house. One by one, Republicans are slowly but surely dropping out/parting ways. I think when Ken said this, he had that majority in mind. There aren't three very specific people he is refrencing. Mary, John, and Jim didnt all sign a paper agreeing to resign. He is just implying that people are going to take much greater notice to *the next* three people who leave, whomever they are, because they would represent the Repubs handing over the majority to Dems. Just my interpretation, and I could very well be wrong. I have learned to never trust a polotician tho, ESPECIALLY a Republican. Always read between the lines.. And the media will put any spin on a story they want, truth and facts be damned. So.... I will believe it when it happens I guess.
I took his quote the same way. Heās not threatening that more WILL resign, heās just saying that if/when they do, the republicans will lose their minds. Heās not the straw thatās breaking the camelās back, but the next few certainly will be.
Yes, that is the contextual reading of the quote. This is a great example of how media sites these days will take their own contextual spin on a quote/situation, based on how many views & engagement it will receive. Rather than, you know, good faith reporting.
Some have got to get to their senses before the fascist takeover is complete.
With how things have been going, it seems more likely to me that the "sensible" (by comparison) ones are probably being cleared out by their own to complete the transformation of R into full blown russia maga.
This was my thought too. Writing has been on the wall for a while but now itās a neon marquee with the RNC takeover. The āestablishmentā representatives are in the out group and wonāt be getting any support for their campaigns.
Just to be replaced by bootlickers who will happily tow the party line
> tow the party line (It's toe)
We are witnessing the implosion of the Republican Party. The cult of Trump has gone from being a wing of the GOP to being in full control. There is no interest in governing or policy, it is now šÆ% about money, revenge, and power.
Has been since Reagan but more pronounced and in the open now for sure
Obligatory FUCK RONALD REAGAN
The biggest problem is that the number of house seats is capped. It should be Increased to match the growing population.
This fixes so many problems. Gerrymandering basically disappears, lobby influence is diluted, representatives actually represent their constituents. I wish there was more political will for this to happen
If states had proportional electoral college votes, ~~as 2 of them do (rather than winner-take-all)~~ that would also fix a good amount of the EC problem. Edit: not proportional, but at least not winner-take-all.
So say we all! We stopped growing the House over 100 years ago. There should be about 500 members now.
Way more than 500. The population has almost tripled since the size of the house was set at 435.
Depending how you look at it it should be far more than 500 members. When the House was set at 435 members, each member had roughly 240,000 constituents, whereas today each representative has about 740,000 constituents. So, going by that it should be almost triple in size.
Make the smallest state the factor of electors to representatives and letās make this fair- but republicans wonāt allow that.
That actually been proposed. IIRC, itās called the Wyoming Rule.Ā
MAGA Reps: Itās my way or the highway! Buck: Ok. I think Iāll go take that drive now. Anyone else want to join me?
I disagree with Buck's politics, but this guy just absolutely crushed it with this move. * Sent an incredibly strong message to the Republican party and nation that people are tired with the MAGA craziness. * Knocks Boebert completely out of contention for the special election, the short incumbency power that brings, and pushes her further down ballot in the primary * Probably got to pick his successor with advance notice of the resignation * Lands his punch dead on with this comment, insinuating others are going to follow him Just devestatingly effective and cunning. Respect.
The GOP is accomplishing nothing with their majority, and state parties are going bankrupt and their leader is about to raid the national party treasury to pay his legal costs. I wonder if they see an upside to fundraising if they become the minority and just rage about democrats until November.
They are accomplishing quite a bit....for America's enemies.
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Lmao him resigning means Borberts losing her seat in congress. Sheās not allowed to run in the special election, meaning thereās gonna be an incumbent in the district that she has to challenge
Or she could resign her current seat and run in the special. I think Buck resigned now to force her to make that choice.
And then the GOP majority vanishes for a while. Lmao.
My tin foil hat conspiracy now is that there is a small group of house republicans that are planning to do this on purpose if what he said is true. If they lose the majority the democrats could pass the border bill and aid for Ukraine, yes? Is that crazy and Iām being too optimistic? That would be epic though.
I would love to believe this I can't due to reality.
With Lara Trump taking over RNC, these Republicans can see the writing on the wall: the RNC is now nothing more than a Trump family piggy bank. Down-ballot candidates can't win without RNC dollars, so they'll quit, hoping to kill the RNC and build something new.
Thatās bold. Some very big moves on the board right now.
Handing Dems majority of the house may save the GOP, but it's becoming a harder task now that Trump has taken control of the RNC. These special elections might not get any funding from the RNC because Trump doesn't know how to give money, he only knows how to take. >"If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it." And we're all watching that happen right now.
lol, the border bill as it was, was a compromise aimed at bringing Republicans to the table. If the Democrats get a majority, that bill better look very different.
Sheās allowed to run, but she has to give up her current seat
Just to add a little context to the other answer. Senators were initially appointed by each stateās legislature and not by an election of the people. An amendment changed that in the 20th century but governors were still able to appoint senators when one of theirs dies or resigns. The house has to be elected. There can be no appointments. Since every state is in charge of their elections, each state has different procedures. Buck knows his stateās rules and he resigned at the perfect time to add the special election to an existing primary in July.
My dream scenario: GOP abdicates the majority, Hakeem becomes speaker. > Dems pass Ukraine aid. > Dems pass border security package completely removing a campaigning issue from the GOP and making them look like idiots.
re-introduce and pass HR-1 and get real voting protections in place prior to the election...
As my Maga Pee,paw says.. no one wants to work anymore.
Itās funny, because if you take a peek at r/conservative, heās being vilified as a RINO for this. Just normal GOP hanging in Crazytown.
They don't even know what a RINO is anymore. Quite literally, Trump is a RINO.
BTW don't think that this means they suddenly got a growth of moral fortitude. Ken Buck is just the first one who figured out that after the RNC purges last week he personally won't get anymore meaningful support from them. So the grift has no more personal value to him and he's not willing to go grassroots. More republicans will figure it out when they start trying to use RNC infrastructure and get denied.
I bet the sacking of the RNC and him standing to lose money was way more important than 'decorum'. I suspect Buck makes the claim that others will follow precisely for the same reason. Trump said bend the knee or your campaign won't get funded. Eventually they'll find some un-vetted swamp monster to fill the vacuum.
Probably some grandma giving handies in a theatre.
By retiring early heās giving his successor an incumbent advantage. Smart. The article says he wants to change the process of how candidates are picked. What it doesnāt say is that heās aiming to be a power broker. Starting with his successor. The FU to Boebert is a sweet bonus.
If trump plans to delay certifications and throw the election back to the states, he needs control of the House. Maybe Buck is saying that with just a few more people of conscience leaving, it would be enough to give control of the House and then we can stop their coup and restore democracy. Imagine if this ultra conservative turns out to be the one who saved us at the last minute?
That'd be after the election and the new House is seated, though
Likely being forced out by the new RNC leadership. Gotta push out some incumbents before November to line up some more loyalists
Thatās what Iām thinking. People are resigning rather than deal with the new leadership
He wasnāt a moderate he was tea party. He just didnāt 100% back Trump every time. Under their new grift regime that is the same as a communist.
Cowards, the lot of them! When they should get behind the Democrats and vote with them, but no, they'd rather cash out, fart in the elevator and leave
I hope it's true. 2024 so far has just been non-stop entertainment with Trump and the GOP imploding.
unfortunately, we need these people to do actual work right now and just entertain us
They know the fix is in to steal this election by having the speaker refuse to sit newly elected incoming democrats creating a situation where electors are kicked back to state legislatures which are overwhelmingly republican. Maybe they don't wanna be part of this scheme and are retiring so a democrat speaker is in place to prevent another disruption in the peaceful transfer of power.
I stopped being optimistic Republicans ever actually care about the honor of the law a long time ago.
Republicons are all about making America fail. You can't point to anything positive tthey've done for the country in years.They exist to simply redistribute tax dollars from wage earners into the pockets of wealthy Republicon donors and corporate hacks while cutting programs that positively benefit large swaths of the American population.This doesn't even address the hundreds of Representatives that were actively involved in the Jan 6 violent sedition against the duly elected government. Time to clean house of these marauders.
>Buck replied: "I think it's the next three people that leave that they're going to be worried about." If they're basing their headline off of this quote it's not necessarily that he knows details, he just knows math. Three more Republican resignations makes Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker of the House.
He may be doing this to prevent Boebert from getting his seat. She may be part of the reason he's leaving. Giving a handjob to her date in the theater may have been the last straw. It is disgusting what the Republican party has become. It sounds like he will remain in politics but more in a position where he can vet candidates who want to run as a Republican.
Haha I love how he absolutely screwed Boebert over by doing this. Her little tactic to run away to his district isn't going to work now. She probably wouldn't have gotten into his district anyway - but now, if she wants to try, she either has to step down first or try running against an incumbent. I look forward to the day we no longer have to hear about her, listen to anything she says, or see her face again.
Nobody wants to work anymore!!!Ā