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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who’s spent roughly two weeks talking up the idea of a bipartisan solution to the GOP’s speaker mess, spoke to Capitol Hill reporters after Republicans failed again to elect a new leader. The New York Democrat offered a rather pointed assessment of the majority party’s nominee for the gavel.
“There’s a whole host of other Republicans who are respected on our side of the aisle,” Jeffries said. “Jim Jordan is not one of them.”
The comments were not unexpected — no one seriously believes that the right-wing House Judiciary Committee chairman has bipartisan credibility — but they were notable in the larger context. The next speaker, no matter who he or she might be, will need 217 votes. For now, it appears Republicans haven’t found someone who can get 217 votes, but Democrats are still sitting there with 212 votes — and they’re willing to deal.
The question then becomes which Republican might be able to get some Democratic support. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes posed that question to Rep. Jamie Raskin on “All In,” asking about the prospect of some kind of agreement. After the Maryland Democrat reiterated the party’s support for Jeffries, Raskin added:
“I’ve said from the beginning that there are a number of Republicans that I could support on a principled, power-sharing basis — assuming that our caucus were to endorse that. ... Liz Cheney would be a perfect choice herself. She was the chair of the Republican conference; she was the #3 Republican for several years. ... Mitt Romney is another name that has been floated as someone we could trust. Angus King, who’s the independent from Maine is another person we could look at.”
Cheney, of course, was a Republican congresswoman from Wyoming who lost in a GOP primary last year; Romney is a retiring Republican senator from Utah, and Angus King is an independent senator from Maine who caucuses with Senate Democrats.
Is it likely that a significant number of House Republicans would rally behind any of the people on Raskin’s list? No, but the Maryland congressman’s on-air comments struck me as notable, in part because it served as a reminder that Democrats are open to the possibility of supporting a GOP candidate as part of a larger agreement, and in part because Democrats aren’t bothering to ask Republicans to support a Democratic candidate.
Remember, Jeffries has 212 votes. It takes 217 to prevail. Five GOP members from competitive districts could cross the aisle, back Jeffries, and end the chaos.
But given how fantastical such a scenario is, Democrats aren’t even making a serious effort to push the possibility. They’re instead trying to be constructive, pointing to Republicans — and an independent — who might garner votes from the minority.
Whether there are House Republicans willing to be equally constructive remains to be seen.