It Didn't Take Much Arm-Twisting By The Fascists To Flip The GOP Holdouts, Did It? It Never Does

Ready For Speaker Jordan?

As part of his… um, charm offensive, Gym Jordan promised a handful of Republicans who were reluctant to vote for him over his Putin-centric foreign policy perspective that he would allow votes on aid to Ukraine and Israel. Juliegrace Brufke reported late yesterday that House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-AL) and 3 other putzy conservatives had flipped from Never Jordan to all in on Jordan.

A Democrat Establishment PAC that doesn't know howtoplay rough, House Majority Forward, is using robocalls to target 11 electorally vulnerable Republicans in 3 states, tying them to Jordan’s extremism. This was each of their margin of victory in 2022:

• David Schweikert (AZ) +0.88

• Juan Ciscomani (AZ) +1.5

• Bill Huizenga (MI) +11.9

• John James (MI) +0.49

• Nick LaLota (NY) +11.0

• George Santos (NY) +7.6

• Anthony D’Esposito (NY) +3.6

• Mike Lawler (NY) +0.64

• Marc Molinaro (NY) +1.6

• Elise Stefanik (NY) +18.4

• Brandon Williams (NY) +0.98

This, in part, is the script: "Republicans have nominated Jim Jordan for Speaker, who voted to overturn the 2020 election, defended the criminals who attacked the Capitol on January 6th, and is in favor of an extreme agenda to ban abortion nationwide, cut veteran benefits by 22%, eliminate health insurance for 21 million Americans, and fire 108,000 school teachers and aides."

By the end of yesterday, with Jordan rolling up endorsements from the ridiculously weak opposition, Sahil Kapur wrote that Republicans in swing districts— like the ones Biden won in 2020— would “face a moment of reckoning… It’s a grueling decision for the GOP lawmakers who fear Jordan’s scorched-earth brand of politics won’t suit their swing districts and could alienate the independent voters they rely on to get elected. Lawmakers from the self-styled ‘governing wing’ of the party also worry that supporting Jordan, a favorite of the right, would amount to rewarding what they see as bad behavior by the far-right rebels who voted to evict McCarthy and throw the House into chaos. ‘It’ll be enormously problematic for the Republicans in those districts that Joe Biden won,’ said former swing-district Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA), referring to the 18 Biden-district GOP lawmakers. ‘Swing district Republicans are going to have Jim Jordan and Donald Trump draped around their necks in the 2024 election... It’s a lot easier to go after Jim Jordan for the events of Jan. 6 and his role in it with Trump than just about any other Republican.’”

Dent pleaded with the not to cave, but most of them already have. One GOP aid told Kapur that “The people opposing him are moderates. Either he gets it or the moderates for the first time ever grow a spine.” Actually they’re not moderates; they’re mainstream conservatives and they’re completely spineless. I don’t see more than one or two of the,msticking to their guns— at most.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Viet Shelton called Jordan a “conspiracy-peddling hard-liner” and said the acquiescence to Jordan shows that there “are no more moderates in the Republican conference” who are willing to counteract the wishes of the “far-right fringes.”

“By tying their political futures to an election-denying, anti-law enforcement, pro-shutdown far-right extremist, these so-called moderates are hand-delivering the DCCC content for campaign ads ahead of next year but, more importantly, they are doing a grave disservice to their country,” Shelton said.

Former Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) who represented a swing district, said he would have voted against Jordan if he were still in the House and would instead seek to draft an institutionalist.

Among his concerns is Jordan’s objections to certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 based on a lie that the election was stolen— and his aggressive public campaign to sell that fabricated claim.

“I think we should have recognized that President Biden won the election and I would not have been involved in questioning President Biden’s election,” Lance said. “And I think in order to govern effectively we should look to a member who could bring cohesion to the caucus but to the House in its entirety.”

A senior GOP aide rebuked the tactics of Jordan allies, saying that since McCarthy's ouster, they "have been threatening people who don’t want to vote for Jordan with primaries, conservative media hit pieces and mean tweets from their influencer army as a means to intimidate them into voting for him.”

Dent said that at a bare minimum, any swing-district Republican should extract public concessions from Jordan before voting for him— such as a guaranteed vote on Ukraine funding and promises to keep the government open and not strangle bipartisan bills.

“They have the most to lose. Their seats are most at risk,” he said. “I would not put up a vote for Jim Jordan without conditions. I mean I’d have a hard time doing it anyway. But to do it without conditions? I don’t get it.”