Might as well face it, House Republicans are addicted to voting.

​Might as well face it, House Republicans are addicted to voting.

      I like voting myself (see previous post, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/ivoting),

...but nothing like the Republican members of the United States House of Representatives do.
      See, like most of my fellow Americans, I like voting for a desired outcome. For the  House Republicans, the outcome they desire from voting is apparently to be able to vote again. And again. And again. It's pretty clear from their inability to elect a Speaker in a timely fashion that the Republicans Reps don't just like voting for a Speaker; they love it, they can't get enough of it, it's all they to like to do anymore. Might as well face it, they're addicted to voting.
        In retrospect, there were warning signs from the start, that is, from back in January after the Republicans won  the House from the Democrats in the November 2022 elections. Normally, before rolling up their sleeves and getting down to the work of legislating, the members of a newly elected Congressional majority have one quick round of social voting, one round on the House as it were, just a kind of a toast vote to officially install into office their new Speaker, who's been chosen in advance, normally.
         But in this case responsible voting went out the window when the pre-ordained,​

​...was un-ordained by a handful of hardcore vote abusers, and one round of voting turned into another round, then another then another, until after a fifteen-round bender the Republican Congress hit strung-out rock bottom and knew they had to quit voting cold turkey and elect Kevin McCarthy. Which they did, but only on the condition that a single one of their members could at any time call for another round of Speaker-voting anytime they wanted it. Or needed it. 
          The Republicans stayed clean and Speaker-vote free for nine months, though there was always an undercurrent suggesting that, one false move by Speaker McCarthy and they'd fall off the group wagon. Which they finally did on October 4, when Matt Gaetz, the crude, loud-mouthed playboy womanizer - or rather, young girlanizer - from Florida,

...got the voting party started to oust McCarthy on the  grounds that he had the...the...the...the noive to negotiate with  Democrats to keep the United States government opened. To the hardcore right-wing faction of the Congressional Republicans, the worst sin their Speaker can commit is reaching across the aisle to work with Democrats. So they voted him out.
         Or else they were just jonesing for another voting binge, which they've been on since then, having among themselves voted in then out first choice Steve Scalise,    ​

...then voted in then out (thank the Lord!) Jim Jordan.

      Next choice Tom Emmer dropped out, 

...when the Republican's head vote dealer and leader of the Republican vote cartel,

...against whose benefit the hapless Mr. Emmer voted for the certification of Joe Biden's election, came to call and mete out his revenge, making it clear that any member of the Republican Party who wanted access to his supply of Trump candy better not vote for Tom Emmer.  And so Emmer, who might well have been the best choice of the bunch, crashed and burned.
        Said Donald Trump of the demise of Tom Emmer's possible Speakership:
        "It's done. It's over. I killed him."

     (Mayhaps Tom Emmer was wise to drop out to make sure that didn't happen to him for reals).
         So just this afternoon ​the Republican side of the House of Representatives, likely once again exhausted and voting dopesick from this three week binge, unanimously elected Mike Johnson of Louisiana,

...a fundamentalist member of the Christian right faction of the Republican party who is a devoted  Trump supporter who worked to try and overthrow the 2020 election, who supports a nationwide abortion ban and a ban on LGBTQ marriage and who was once called by fellow Republican ​Baton Rouge Metro Councilman John Delgado, 

...a "despicable bigot of the highest order" 
     However, all that being said, when it comes to funding the government, Mike Johnson is in favor of something called  single subject spending bills, which means that instead of putting together an omnibus package of all the money that needs to be appropriated to keep the country running, voting on a small separate bill for each department that needs to be funded.  Said Johnson of this modus operandi, "It takes more time. It's a messier process. But in the end, I think it'll be good for the American people."
        Right. What it'll do is take more time to get the government funded. It'll take, like, forever with all the voting that will be required. No wonder the House Republicans elected  Mike Johnson. Never mind running the country; gotta keep feeding that voting addiction.

References:
https://nrb.org/with-shutdown-looming-single-subject-spending-bills-edge-ahead-of-cr/

​https://www.ktbs.com/news/congressman-mike-johnson-speaks-on-government-shutdown/article_e119fb56-5e73-11ee-8d4c-efa129e5b15d.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/24/i-killed-him-how-trump-torpedoed-tom-emmers-speaker-bid-00123329
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https://news.yahoo.com/mike-johnson-may-win-speakership-043002517.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

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