@volkris @wwew And let's make one thing clear: 212 democrats will vote for Hakeem Jeffries in today's vote because their party is united behind one candidate. It doesn't look like the same is true of the republicans.

@TNLNYC

You say that like blind partisanship is a good thing.

@wwew

@volkris @wwew Hardly. Just that you can't blame one party for another party's failure. What's happening in the house is a failure of the GOP. They can't elect a leader for their own party. I believe that a party who cannot align behind a leader for their party is ill equipped to lead the country.

@TNLNYC

Oh the GOP absolutely did elect the leader for their own party. Steve Scalise was elected majority leader.

The Speaker of the House isn't the leader of a party, though, the office is the leader of the entire chamber, and so far Democrats have been voting with the GOP outliers to prevent the election of a Speaker.

We absolutely can blame them for that because it is the active choice that they are making for whatever strategic reason they see fit.

@wwew

@volkris @wwew Scalise was elected the leader of the majority but couldn't even get a chance at a vote for the speakership. He was knifed by his own right wing. The democrats have been consistently voting for who they think should be speaker: Hakeem Jeffries. It's who they presented in January, who the whole party voted for then, and who they presented and still voted for today. The only difference between then and now is in the GOP conference. You can't blame democrats for that.

@TNLNYC

Right, so what's the difference between the process of selecting Majority Leader vs Speaker? Democrats.

You said the GOP can't elect a leader for their own party, but they did.

The issue here is that the whole House, not just the GOP, hasn't been able to elect a leader.

That's the responsibility of both parties.

There is one difference between the parties at this point, though: Democrats actively voted to shut the House down to put us in this position while Republicans voted overwhelmingly against it.

It's worth calling those representatives out on their votes.

@wwew

@volkris

And the democrats haven't voted with GOP outliers to prevent the election of a speaker. They've been voting for their candidate consistently to elect their candidate. 100% of them voted for the candidate they advanced.

@wwew

@TNLNYC

I get what you're saying, but practically their votes have prevented the election of a speaker, just as yes, Republican votes have prevented the election of Jeffries.

Yes, Democrats have voted with GOP outliers to prevent the election of a speaker under the rules of the election.

I get that you are saying they aren't voting for the outliers' candidates, but nonetheless, their votes do prevent the election of a speaker

@wwew

@TNLNYC

I *hoped* Democrats wouldn't vote to shut down the House. But they did. Unanimously.

That's different from what I *expected*, though.

I expected they would, regardless of my hopes.

@wwew