It’s safe to say that the 118th Congress is getting off to a memorable start as the vote for speaker of the House drags into a fourth day and GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., being nowhere close to getting the 218 votes needed to take the gavel in the Republican-controlled lower chamber.
Nerves are frayed and patience is running thin, particularly for the political elite, people like U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., where inauguration week is typically a week of schmoozing with fat cat donors at parties and other fancy events. The 84-year-old Democrat who has spent more than three decades in Washington, D.C., was seen taking her ire out on U.S, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., a member of the Gang of Five leading the opposition to McCarthy becoming speaker — the other four are U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.
“This is my 9th vote for Hakeem Jefferies,” Waters stood up and said at one point on Thursday, before turning and pointing to a group of Republican lawmakers behind her. “Matt Rosendale, get it together.”
Maxine Waters just went crazy on the house floor. Maxine is a lawless basket case who is unfit to serve on any Congressional Committees. pic.twitter.com/O159mhis2y
— Charles R Downs (@TheCharlesDowns) January 5, 2023
Calls for order came raining down over Waters’ antics, which came about an hour after Rosendale spoke from the floor and mentioned her name while mischievously claiming he didn’t.
“Last summer we began to negotiate, a group of us in good faith, a list of changes, amendments, to the rules of this body. Not to empower ourselves, not to bring personal benefit to ourselves, but to empower you and you and you, Maxine, and you, and you, and everyone sitting in this chamber equally,” Rosendale said.
“There’s no rules, I did not use anyone’s name… Excuse me, Maxine,” he added.
Here is a clip of Rosendale’s remark, with a left-wing spin:
Rosendale calls out Maxine Waters by name but then denies he did so just seconds later. Very weird. pic.twitter.com/5B9TNG5O6K
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 5, 2023
Turns out, Waters was in such a hurry to get on with the week’s festivities that she appears to be advocating FOR McCarthy — which says a lot about how broken Washington really is:
Now why would Maxine Waters want GOP members to support Kevin McCarthy? Hmmmm. That should tell you everything you need to know. https://t.co/uOC4TcVSJS
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) January 5, 2023
There have now been eleven unsuccessful votes for speaker and while there are reports of a possible deal being struck between McCarthy and the holdouts, the voting could go on for a while — in 1855, it took two months and 133 ballots to arrive at a leader.
Voting will resume on Friday and it remains to be seen if any of the 20 GOP lawmakers opposing McCarthy are willing to cave.
Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:
Watching Cspan is better than Netflix!
— AnnaV (@perchance99) January 5, 2023
Are these actual grownups.
— Nkonology (@Nkonology) January 5, 2023
She got called out and then freaked out. On both counts she looked bad.
— Adriezy (@Adriezy1) January 5, 2023
I couldn’t even understand a word she said.
— Karla-VOTE RED! ❤️ (@jltklt22) January 6, 2023
Matt Rosendale called Maxine’s name. According to house rules, you can call a person’s state but not their name. Maxine talked about Jeffries win, and she told Rosendale that he better get it together. Then she called him Rosenthall twice. She said that he said my name first.
— The(e) Linda Cardwell Resister (@CardLinda) January 6, 2023
Writers and editors can be contacted at writers@bizpcreview.com with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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