House Democrats should unite with moderate Republicans to elect a speaker | Robert Reich

To get their support, extremists in the House are demanding that any member be able to call a vote at any time to oust him, which would put McCarthy on a very short leash controlled by the Maga right (with Trump indirectly controlling them).

Does this mean the rest of us have to sit back and allow a tiny minority of extreme rightwing Maga House Republicans controlled by Donald Trump to hijack congressional Republicans, who in turn will hijack the entire House, and thereby hijack much of Congress?

House Democrats and moderate Republicans could come up with the 218 votes to put Upton or Joyce over the top.

But Joyce is not a Maga Republican. He refused to sign the Texas amicus brief that tried to overturn the results of the presidential election. He was also one of the few Republican House members who did not object to the counting of electoral college votes on January 6, 2021.

He was one of 35 Republicans who joined all Democrats in approving legislation to establish the January 6 commission to investigate the storming of the US Capitol. He and 46 other Republicans voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, codifying the right to same-sex marriage in federal law.

What should Democrats ask for in return? A power-sharing agreement similar to the one agreed to in the last Senate, in which each party got the same number of seats on all committees.