Jim Jordan has lost his first Speaker vote.
Hakeem Jeffries got 212 votes. Jim Jordan got 200. 20 Republicans voted against Jordan. That's one more, according to MSNBC, than the number of Republicans who voted against McCarthy on his first Speaker vote.
It's around 4:30pm and there hasn't been another vote yet. There are various empty media speculations a out why not and what happens next, but I will tell you that if Jordan thought he had more votes than he did at lunchtime today, he'd have scheduled a revote already.
Here's the thing about being a Disruptor: once you throw out the rules then other people don't have to follow them either. Jim Jordan and friends have broken all kinds of unwritten rules about party politics, and now they are seeing some consequences. May they see more!
So it has been announced that there will be no more votes until 11am Wednesday morning. This is, as some people have just straight up admitted, because Jordan does not want to lose more than one vote today.
I'll be interested to see what happens tomorrow. I saw one GOP congressmen telling the media that in order to get his vote Jordan has to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election. Others are demanding that he guarantee they will fund the government. Some people are just putting together laundry lists of stuff they know their constitutents want. How many promises will Jordan make? How much begging is he prepared to do? Apparently over the weekend the Jordan campaign was all stick and no carrot--basically siccing the MAGA machine on the holdouts, even Sean Hannity was apparently contacting legislators directly on Jordan's behalf--and that approach failed to deliver. CAN Jordan bring himself to lick enough boot to get the gavel? I don't know!
It's too bad Conn mac Emer has retired; he would have been all over this. But it's like I said back in January: first the GOP didn't WANT to govern, now they CAN'T govern. Like, nobody actually wanted this. Even Matt Gaetz, some people suggest, was counting on Democratic votes to save McCarthy. The dog has caught the car; and we're now learning that the dog still does not know how to drive.
Meanwhile, every Democrat in the house has voted for Hakeem Jeffries every time. Maxine Waters cast her vote for Jeffries and "against Jordan, an insurrectionist." Go get him! If nothing else this is a real morale boost and bonding experience for a Democratic conference that can become quite fractious.
About to get on a plane, but just want to note that Jordan is in the middle of losing his second speaker vote. He's already lost too many Republicans to win; let's see if he can break his precious record of 20 Republican defections!



















