Well, Scalise withdrew, in part I guess because Jordan and his people were releasing scandalous info on him. I guess Steve spent half a million of the people's money on feeding himself steak dinners at the Capital Grille in DC and who knows what else. Jordan and his buds though, out that out to torpedo him while Jordan pretended to move aside to allow Scalise to take the position. Hilarious, these guys are a bunch of snakes all out for themselves. 

Have you ever heard the phrase, Pat, "strength in unity" because there is none of that in the flaming ruins of what was once the GOP. 

I keep trying to tell you how messed up they are, not out of any glee on my part, but because it is important, I think that you should be aware of it. Geez, we've chatted here for 20 years or more, I just felt like I at least owe it to you to try to point out this utter insanity. It's bad for all of us. 

Reading about it this morning, the word is the Republicans are in total chaos, they are at each other's throats and backstabbing away. This is part of why I see no long game here, man. They don't even have a short game, the goal was to have a new speaker after McCarthy was tossed out within 24 hours. That certainly did not happen. 

People like Gaetz, Jordan, Trump...their plan for the party is constant chaos and turmoil. What we are seeing now is exactly what they want. I really hope this is something you have caught on to. This is the gift Trump gave to the Republicans and it has spawned a bunch of politicians that love Trump's chaos model. DeSantis is one of these people as well. He loves the chaos approach and has brought it to Florida. 

This is a really harmful way to approach government. The idea is, create problems, work to make the problems worse once created, and then point your finger at anybody and everybody to blame them for the problem you created. 

Here's the strangest part of this, the Republicans really were in a position to raise a serious challenge to the Democrats, the Democrats have really done very little to prevent that...but...Republicans, generally the MAGA ones, are pouring gasoline on themselves and the party and setting it and themselves on fire. It's amazing really. Everything they should do to position themselves to challenge the Democrats, they do the opposite. They look like they want to sink themselves but basically that's because the Republican party is now every man for themselves. They are not working for their states, for the country, for the people, it is help yourself to all you can grab. Trump made that their standard.

So, Gaetz did this because he only wanted to get attention for himself. He has learned the lesson from Trump that even if you do something horrible, it gets your face on TV and you in the news, and all publicity is good publicity is what they believe. Doesn't matter what you are in the news for, it could be eating babies, if you are in the news people are paying attention to you, talking about you, so you become more and more famous, Trump learned that from his mentor Roy Cohn...who needless to say, was a scumbag. 

I only say all this because I think you should take it into consideration, Pat. Obviously, you don't have to listen to me but I am not bullshitting you, I have no reason to. 

So, it was interesting yesterday, Jordan and his buddies screw Scalise, this keeps the Republicans in turmoil, as this happens Trump endorses Elise Stefanik for Speaker, also screwing Scalise to some extent. So, do you think Stefanik is the strong man...um...woman the party needs to lead them? Personally, I don't but they probably try her now. She was a very moderate Republican at one point, then when Trump arrived she saw a way to raise her profile by saying nutty stuff and backing all the dumb things he did. It worked for her and she has stuck with that. I think many Republicans don't trust her because she is such an obvious political opportunist, but we'll see. The boss says she is the one. 

You have to consider that Trump and Jordan are trying to keep the chaos going. While there is no speaker, the House is frozen. Can't do anything about helping Israel, can't help in Ukraine, can't pass legislation. I know this is what some people want from their government, frozen, do nothing, boobs who just stuff their pockets while they can...and if you like that, well, guys like Trump, Jordan, and Gaetz are heroes.