So…

 …that happened.

In an hour and a half, House Republicans will head to 1100 Longworth to elect a speaker. I've never seen the House Republican Conference so discombobulated, rudderless and confused in my time covering Congress. 

They said they'd spend the fall passing bills using regular order, instead they've booted their speaker and are warring over the next one. 

They are rewriting the rules for the election the day of the election after criticizing states for doing that in 2020. 

They are taking the cell phones of elected officials when they go into meetings -- these are adults with staffs who are not able to bring their electronics into party meetings. 

This speaker election could go a while. Two weeks now on an internal party matter with govt funding expiring in a month and change

Yeah, Trump is gonna scream “RIGGED!” 🙀 

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) will likely be the new Speaker of the House, the Daily Beast reported Wednesday. It means that Donald Trump's endorsed Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was not successful. 

House Republicans spent most of Wednesday morning behind closed doors in the Longworth office building on Capitol Hill, debating over who should take the helm after the previous speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted. 

It means Scalise is the nomination, but he still has to be elected the full chamber. CNN reported that vote was expected this afternoon.

Wonder if they kept the one-vote MTV (not the cable channel!) rule?

Tell me again Trump has an iron grip on the GOP. Not that Scalise is an improvement over McCarthy (though he’s better than Jordan). But did Trump reshape the GOP? Or did the GOP accommodate Trump?*

Signs point to “Yes.”**

*I suspect this is a practical vote, not an ideological one. Scalise is a better fundraiser than Jordan. And Trump’s fundraising is all going for lawyers now, which means he has shorter coattails, too. Shorter and more ragged. Trump isn’t likely to play the kingmaker he’d like to be.

**No, it’s hardly like these were great choices:

Crockett: On the Republican side, you have well over two hundred representatives and the best two that they could find are a guy who covered up sexual abuse… or the other guy who likes to pal around with David Duke.