The Kramer. Was Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: For the first time in 100 years....

Is anyone else reminded of the famous Seinfeld episode about the painting of Cosmo Kramer?

Speaker One: “I sense great vulnerability. A man-child crying out for love. An innocent orphan in the post-modern world.”

Speaker Two: “I see a parasite. A sexually depraved miscreant who is seeking only to gratify his basest and most immediate urges.”

Speaker One: “His struggle is man's struggle. He lifts my spirit.”

Speker Two: “He is a loathsome, offensive brute. Yet I can’t look away.”

Speaker One: “He transcends time and space.”

Speaker Two: “He sickens me.”

Speaker One: “I love it.”

Speaker Two: “Me too.”

And the third time is not the charm, with McCarthy losing an additional vote.

As noted, there's historical precedent for this, but this is a bit of a GOP disaster.  The GOP barely won the House in the midterms, and now it is in such disarray that it's in a Speaker fight for the first time in 100 years.

To have a ballot go over three rounds, moreover, is not a good sign.  It's happened eight times before, and each time it went over three rounds it jumped up to double digits, save for a single time, which was the 1923 example of the 68th Congress.  If this follows the historical pattern, which of course it may very well not, we'll now see at least nine rounds, which would stand to potentially weaken McCarthy enormously as a speaker.

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: For the first time in 100 years....: 

Lex Anteinternet: For the first time in 100 years. . .

Earlier we reported the below. Since then, he's lost round two, and appears to be set to lose round three.

Well, he still hasn't matched 1923, which went to 9.

And he's far short of 1855, which went to 155.

Lex Anteinternet: For the first time in 100 years. . .: 

For the first time in 100 years. . .

the election of Speaker of the House will go into a second round.

Kevin McCarthy, who obviously wants the position very badly, and who hitched his wagon to the Trump ass cart in an effort to get it, after first criticizing the January 6 Insurrection, failed to secure it as nineteen Republicans voted against him and for somebody else.

His opposition, ironically, has been from the arch right, some of whom voted for Andy Biggs.

Democrat Hakim Jeffries of New York had the most votes, at 212, with McCarthy at 203.  Under the rules, apparently, you need a majority of voting members, so Jeffries isn't it, in spite of beating out McCarthy.

Interestingly enough, for the readers of this blog, the last time this happened was in 1923, when Frederick Gillett became speaker after nine ballots.   In terms of overall Congressional history, however, this isn't that unique, and perhaps it should not be.  According to this chart by the Speaker of the House historian, it's happened quite a bit.

Congress (Years)                 Name                                                         State Final Ballot

3rd Congress (1793–1795) MUHLENBERG, Frederick Augustus Conrad PA 3rd

6th Congress (1799–1801) SEDGWICK, Theodore MA 2nd

9th Congress (1805–1807) MACON, Nathaniel NC 3rd

11th Congress (1809–1811) VARNUM, Joseph Bradley MA 2nd

16th Congress (1819–1821) TAYLOR, John W.1  NY 22nd

17th Congress (1821–1823) BARBOUR, Philip Pendleton VA 12th

19th Congress (1825–1827) TAYLOR, John W. NY 2nd

23rd Congress (1833–1835) BELL, John TN 10th

26th Congress (1839–1841) HUNTER, Robert Mercer Taliaferro VA 11th

30th Congress (1847–1849) WINTHROP, Robert Charles MA 3rd

31st Congress (1849–1851) COBB, Howell GA 63rd

34th Congress (1855–1857) BANKS, Nathaniel Prentice MA 133rd

36th Congress (1859–1861) PENNINGTON, William NJ 44th

68th Congress (1923–1925) GILLETT, Frederick Huntington MA 9th

McCarthy shouldn't get it, in my view, which differs from the view of those currently voting against him in the GOP (but probably coincides with Democrats who aren't voting for him).  His siding with Trump after the insurrection disqualifies him, in my view.