A Republican majority controls the House of Representatives. The Democrats are sitting back and letting the Republicans sort their own mess out, but it isn't getting sorted. Two top Republicans want the Democrats to offer help they already rejected under Speaker McCarthy.
"I don't think we're gonna have any other option," McCaul said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's "Balance of Power," given the urgency to pass an aid package for Israel. "I don't think that's the ideal scenario," he added, but said no one in his conference seems capable of reaching 217 votes.
Their comments address the deep divisions within the GOP ranks that have immobilized the party for more than a week since McCarthy's Oct. 3 ouster.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who on Wednesday clinched the Republican speaker nomination in a narrow secret ballot vote against Jim Jordan of Ohio, remains far short of the vote tally he needs to win an election on the floor, and his holdouts show no signs of budging.
Neither Scalise nor Jordan are acceptable candidates. One prides itself on comparisons to a former grand wizard of the KKK, and the other enables child molestation. Neither of these, however, is the reason the Republican caucus refuses to unite behind either. Merely enough Republicans have decided they were elected to be agents of chaos that the government is held hostage.
Jeffries indicated that Democrats were willing to work with Republicans, but he did not specify what his party would demand in return. An earlier power-sharing proposal was rejected by McCarthy before his historic ouster.
"The House of Representatives has been broken by chaos, dysfunction and extremism," Jeffries said. "The only way out is to enter into an enlightened bipartisan coalition of the willing in order to get things back on track."
The Democrats are standing back, amused. They've been clear they won't clean this mess up for the Republicans. The Republicans seem to be waiting for that to happen, however.
Jeffries has offered discussions on a bipartisan path forward. But Rogers said Democrats should make a specific offer that could provide a basis for opening negotiations.
"They haven't offered jack," Rogers said.
Next up: Biden isn't helping them either! Wah Wah Wah.
