TITLE: ‘Performance Art’: Mitt Romney Destroys Jim Jordan For Doing Nothing In Congress But Making ‘A Lot of Noise’
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/performance-art-mitt-romney-destroys-jim-jordan-for-doing-nothing-in-congress-but-making-a-lot-of-noise/
EXCERPT: “I mean, right now, Jim Jordan, for instance, you’ve heard, is running for speaker of the House. My former chief of staff sent me a message today and said, you know, it’s interesting. Here’s a guy who wants to be the speaker of the House. Do you know how many bills he’s passed that he’s authored? None.
And how many bills that he’s just been a sponsor of, by the way. You get to sign up to be a sponsor of a bill. All right. And so, you know, I’ve seen lots and lots of bills that I didn’t write, but I’m a sponsor. None of the bills he sponsored has ever become law.
So we’re looking at electing a person who would be second in line to the presidency, who’s never passed a bill. But he’s certainly well known because he’s able to make a lot of noise.
And that’s the currency of the realm these days in politics, is finding a way to stand out and to be well known. And if I were to ask you the names of congresspeople that, you know, they’d almost all be people who don’t actually do anything or pass any law, but they are very outspoken.
TITLE: Republican Defends Speakership Chaos: 'It's the Good Part'
https://www.newsweek.com/republican-defends-speakership-chaos-1836150
EXCERPTS: Representative Tom Tiffany backed the disagreement between his colleagues on Thursday when he was asked by Fox News why Republicans couldn't come together in the same way that Democrats have on a Speaker candidate.
"Yeah, cause they act in lockstep," Tiffany said of his Democratic counterparts. "We are independent thinkers in the Republican Party and that's the good part about our party."
Tiffany's defense of his Republican colleagues comes as other House Republicans have publicly criticized their own party for the chaos that has ensued in the chamber since former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by eight members of his conference earlier this month.
Representative Mike Lawler, who backed McCarthy for speaker in both rounds of voting this week, called for consensus on Wednesday, telling the Times Union that the only way for Republicans to maintain the majority in the House is to find a speaker who moderates and far-right members of the GOP can rally behind.
"Right now, there's no consensus. I have said to Jim directly: If you want to build consensus, you have to bring together the folks who are in these swing districts and who have been frustrated by what has gone on the last 10 months and the folks who have worked against the interests of the conference. But in the absence of that, I don't see how you get consensus here," Lawler said.
But Jordan has long held a reputation of being a fighter who will push forward until he achieves his goal on his terms.
"Jim wasn't known for consensus-building and legislation-passing," former Republican state Representative Derrick Seaver, who took Jordan's role in the Ohio House of Representatives in 2000, told the New York Times. "He wasn't known as a collaborator. He was going to push his belief system, first and foremost."
Jordan's holdouts, however, may be too much for him to push back on. While Tiffany seemed optimistic that the GOP would eventually elect a speaker before moving on to "do good things for the American people [that] representing the true interests of the American people," new reports say that Jordan will not hold a third vote. Instead, he'll support interim House Speaker Patrick McHenry in holding the post until January 3.
Tiffany has expressed his disapproval of empowering McHenry with full gavel powers.
"All this talk of empowering a temporary House Speaker is Swamp talk," the Wisconsin Republican wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday. "My constituents sent me to Washington to change the status quo. We shouldn't kick the can down the road. We should elect Speaker Jim Jordan."
TITLE: Georgia Congressman Ferguson flipped support for House speaker, citing threats from Jordan allies
https://georgiarecorder.com/brief/georgia-congressman-ferguson-flipped-support-for-house-speaker-citing-threats-from-jordan-allies/
EXCERPT: A Georgia GOP congressman who backed Ohio U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan for speaker in the first round of voting but not Wednesday has cited the pro-Jordan crowd’s bullying tactics and pressure campaign as the reason for flipping his vote – a vote he says was followed by death threats.
U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, a Republican from The Rock in Upson County, issued the statement Thursday as news spread that Jordan would not seek a third vote for speaker at this time after losing support on the second ballot Wednesday.
Ferguson said that he had “genuine concerns about the threatening tactics and pressure campaigns Jordan and his allies were using to leverage members for their votes.” His comments mirror concerns expressed by others about the pressure campaign deployed to put the gavel in Jordan’s hand.
Ferguson, who represents a district southwest of Atlanta, said he spoke to Jordan directly about his concerns and had planned to back the far-right Freedom Caucus co-founder again. But that changed.
“When the pressure campaigns and attacks on fellow members ramped up, it became clear to me that the House Republican Conference does not need a bully as the Speaker,” Ferguson said.
The former West Point mayor ultimately voted for Louisiana Republican and U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was nominated earlier for speaker but withdrew from the race last Thursday. The Georgia Republican, who has been in office since 2017, pointedly called Scalise “a principled conservative and unifying leader.”
“Shortly after casting that vote, my family and I started receiving death-threats. That is simply unacceptable, unforgivable, and will never be tolerated,” Ferguson said.
SEE ALSO:
Miller-Meeks Statement on Speaker Vote and Death Threats
https://millermeeks.house.gov/media/press-releases/miller-meeks-statement-speaker-vote-and-death-threats