Having lost the first vote to become House speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan will try again on a decisive second ballot that will test whether the hard-edged ally of Donald Trump can win over the holdouts or if his bid for the gavel is collapsing, denied by detractors.
Ahead of Wednesday morning’s voting, Jordan made an unexpected plea for party unity, the combative Judiciary Committee chairman telling his colleagues on social media, “we must stop attacking each other and come together.”
But a surprisingly large and politically diverse group of 20 Republicans rejected Jordan’s nomination, many resisting the hardball tactics enforcing support, and viewing the Ohio congressman as too extreme for the powerful position of House speaker, second in line to the presidency.
Lacking the authority over state level legal proceedings hasn’t stopped Jordan from trying to exert pressure over Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis. It’s not about what he can do within the bounds of the law. He’s already tried it without the speakership. The speakership just gives him more weight to throw around and makes it just a little harder to impose accountability on him.
Oh, sure. It’s practically a given that he’ll try
and continue to failto exert authority over things beyond his jurisdiction. But that’s the “political strong-man” act I was referring to, and even with his weak attempts to affect the state cases, I don’t expect that sort of behavior to stop while he still breathes.It doesn’t matter to him if he ultimately succeeds, because the point is to make a show to his base that he still swears fealty to the Orange Oaf.