{"id":50519,"date":"2023-01-15T16:31:40","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T00:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=50519"},"modified":"2023-01-15T16:31:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T00:31:40","slug":"everyday-erinyes-353","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2023\/01\/15\/everyday-erinyes-353\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #353"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

I said last week I wasn’t finished with the subject of the Speakership of the House of Representatives. I expect thet after today I will be – for a while. I assume what inspired this article is the fact that the GOP majority in the house is so slender – more so even than our was for the last two years. And McCarthy is no Pelosi. Also, the Republican Party is in rupture, not only in the House, but statewide in most states (if not all of them) and nationally.<\/p>\n

As the author points out, deaths happen. Resignations happen, for whatever reasons. And, with this majority, it’s a good bet indictments are going to happen. I don’t know to whom, I don’t know for what crimes, I certainly don’t know for how many. But even if the House decides to stand by its felons, some crimes currently under investigation are such as to constitutionally disqualify the felon from public office.
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Speaker of the House faces political peril from member deaths and resignations \u2013 especially with a narrow\u00a0majority<\/h1>\n
GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy wants to be speaker of the House.
\nKevin Dietsch\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Charles R. Hunt<\/a>, Boise State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The arm-twisting<\/a>, dealmaking<\/a> and vote hunting<\/a> around Kevin McCarthy\u2019s quest to be named House speaker have put on full display the fact that razor-thin majorities in both the House and the Senate are becoming a fact of life at the federal level.<\/p>\n

In multiple ballots conducted on Jan. 3, 2023 to elect the speaker of the House, McCarthy failed to get the required number of votes<\/a>. Additional balloting is expected in the race for speaker.<\/p>\n

Slim margins might make for dramatic television<\/a>, but they create legislative and institutional uncertainty that has very real consequences for how Congress is run and how policy gets made.<\/p>\n

Because the GOP\u2019s 10-seat House majority is so small, McCarthy has had to placate the moderate wing, the right wing and the far-right wing<\/a> of his conference \u2013 all at the same time \u2013 in his quest for the speaker\u2019s gavel.<\/p>\n

The GOP\u2019s slim majority may actually get slimmer. This is because of seat vacancies caused by the early departures of members of Congress. These vacancies happen with regularity, and could have major impacts on the Republicans\u2019 legislative agenda over the next two years.<\/p>\n

A slim majority means that the Republican leadership can\u2019t afford to lose support from even small groups of members within their party. But each congressional session, some members depart Congress early, leaving vacancies that can complicate party leaders\u2019 efforts to placate their competing factions or blocs. Imagine, for example, that a moderate Republican member dies or resigns in the next few months. Will that person be replaced with another moderate? A Trump-aligned Republican? A Democrat?<\/p>\n

With such a small advantage, the potential effect of this replacement is huge \u2013 not just for McCarthy, but for Congress as a whole, and the American people, whose lives are affected by legislation passed by Congress.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Visitors file past the flag-draped casket of Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, as he lies in state in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol on March 29, 2022.<\/span>
\nDrew Angerer\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do vacancies occur?<\/h2>\n

The 117th Congress, which met from Jan. 3, 2021, to Jan. 3, 2023, set a modern record with 15 vacancies, a rate unmatched going back to the 1950s. This was partly because of six member deaths, including Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska<\/a>, the longest-serving House member at the time. A number of these vacancies occurred in the first days of the 117th, when several Democratic House members, including Cedric Richmond of Louisiana and Marcia Fudge of Ohio, took positions in the new Biden administration.<\/p>\n