I think in the 20s they had a house speaker ship take 40+ ballots.
Precedent from the 1920s is worth very little. I see no reason why they wouldn't just nominate Pelosi a few times, get no Speaker, and then sit on their hands and grandstand about how progressives are shutting down the government during a pandemic. Certainly no one is forcing them to keep voting at gunpoint.
any dem is better than Pelosi
As the comment above me pointed out, a Speaker who acts as Pelosi does but is 30 years younger and is less of a lightning rod would be worse.
First off. The next speaker will not stay as long as Pelosi. The party is in a death spiral mostly due to her poor leadership.
2nd. That's the rules on how the house operates. The speaker doesn't even have to be a member of the house. But they must have a speaker to operate and they will be under immense donor pressure to figure it out.
I mean I'm assuming we still have a functioning government that has been operating the same as it has when Republicans where picking speaker. So I think the rules matter as the empire still stands.
Speaker ship changes. Republicans have had squabbles over it.
"Rules matter" is a scorching hot take in 2021. They don't even have to break any rules in the scenario I outlined -- they can just do a few failed votes and then go to the media about it instead of locking themselves in a room and doing it all over again.
Precedent from the 1920s is worth very little. I see no reason why they wouldn't just nominate Pelosi a few times, get no Speaker, and then sit on their hands and grandstand about how progressives are shutting down the government during a pandemic. Certainly no one is forcing them to keep voting at gunpoint.
As the comment above me pointed out, a Speaker who acts as Pelosi does but is 30 years younger and is less of a lightning rod would be worse.
First off. The next speaker will not stay as long as Pelosi. The party is in a death spiral mostly due to her poor leadership.
2nd. That's the rules on how the house operates. The speaker doesn't even have to be a member of the house. But they must have a speaker to operate and they will be under immense donor pressure to figure it out.
And how much do the rules matter?
For all we know donors would be happy with a government shutdown that they could use to kneecap progressives.
I mean I'm assuming we still have a functioning government that has been operating the same as it has when Republicans where picking speaker. So I think the rules matter as the empire still stands.
Speaker ship changes. Republicans have had squabbles over it.
"Rules matter" is a scorching hot take in 2021. They don't even have to break any rules in the scenario I outlined -- they can just do a few failed votes and then go to the media about it instead of locking themselves in a room and doing it all over again.