The vote in the House for Speaker will take place in less than half an hour. The ultimate outcome will in all probability be Boehner’s reelection. We hope that at least a second vote will be required. The grassroots opposition to his reelection is astounding. Phone lines to Republican Congressman have been very busy and overwhelmingly in support of “change.” The capitol switchboard I tried took too long for my patience so I used direct numbers to King and Blum. My attempts at contacting Dave Young were limited to e-mails.
Yesterday we speculated about whether Democrats might be inclined to help Boehner if the Republican insurrection took hold for more than a vote or two. Ace of Spades has a twist that would provide the path that avoids the tradition of not voting FOR the opposing party’s nominees.
Boehner wins if he has a majority of the votes cast for a Speaker, excluding abstentions. If, say, ten people abstain, then those ten are not part of the count used for determining a “majority.” That is, abstentions reduce the number of votes needed to get to a majority.
The point is, if Democrats really want to help John Boehner, a block of them could abstain from voting, thus reducing the number of votes Boehner needs to win (and increasing the number of votes the insurgents need to block him).
Skulduggery abounds.
R Mall
