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Subscribe to RSSThe House will vote tomorrow to elect a Speaker of the House. While it is likely that Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) will be reelected, if 17 conservatives decide to vote against Boehner, it could lead to the first second ballot for speaker since 1923.
There are no indications Boehner will not be re-elected Speaker. While there will likely be members who vote against him, there is no real candidate that could garner enough votes to take Boehner down.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) leaves a House Republican Caucus meeting.
The 113th Congress will convene for the first time at noon Thursday, after which the House will vote to elect a speaker.
Members will be called by name alphabetically and asked for their vote. This vote is different than typical votes, which are done electronically during a set period of time.
The next speaker needs a majority of all votes cast to be elected. They do not need a majority of the full membership of the House. The 113th has 434 members because Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s seat will be vacant.
If all members were to vote, Boehner would need 218 votes, unless there are members who are absent for the vote or members who vote "present" (for no one).
Since 1913, the year the House reached the size of 435 members, there has only been one time that no candidate received the majority of the votes cast for speaker.
That was in 1923, when nine ballots over three days were needed before Rep. Frederick Gillett (R-MA) was reelected to the position for a third term.
The speaker does not have to be a member of Congress, but in the history of the House of Representatives there has never been a speaker who was not a member.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) nominated Newt Gingrich this year during the Republican Conference meeting, but that nomination was not seconded, and Speaker Boehner was nominated by a voice vote (no objectors) to be the Republicans' nominee yet again. Democrats chose to have Nancy Pelosi as their nominee for Speaker of the House.
Between 1943 and 1995, only the nominated Republican and Democrat received votes, but before that, it was customary for members of other groups within parties would garner votes as well.
Since 1913, the speaker has been elected without a majority of the whole House, but with the majority of those voting, only four times:
-- 1917 (65th Congress) -- "Champ" Clark (D-MO) was elected with 217 votes;
-- 1923 (68th Congress) -- Frederick Gillett (R-MA) was elected with 215 votes;
-- 1943 (78th Congress) -- Sam Rayburn (D-TX) was elected with 217 votes;
-- 1997 (105th Congress) -- Newt Gingrich (R-GA) was elected with 216 votes
Recent speaker votes:
-- 2011 (Jan. 5th): Boehner 241, Pelosi 173, Shuler 11, Lewis (GA) 2 Costa 1, Cardoza 1, Cooper 1, Kaptur 1, Hoyer 1, Present 1
-- 2009 (Jan. 6th): Pelosi 255, Boehner 174
-- 2007 (Jan. 4th): Pelosi 233, Boehner 202
-- 2005 (Jan. 4th): Hastert 226, Pelosi 199, Murtha 1, Present 1
Leave a Comment:
The only reason Boner will be back as speaker, is that Cantor failed the DNA test to prove he was human!
1/1/2013. The day the Tea Party became nothing more than the punchline to a bad joke!
You are an amazing fount of verbal diarrhea.
Blamo. Just for you!
Lets sum up the last couple months:
-The GOP LOST the WH
-The GOP LOST seats in the Senate
-The TP LOST 10 seats in the House
-The TP LOST their blockage of a fiscal cliff deal by 90 votes.
The GOP didn't have the WH, so they couldn't lose it. Only the Dems could have lost it.
The GOP didn't lose enough seats in the Senate to make any difference.
The GOP still controls the House...nothing changed there.
It looks like the pig is entertaining herself tonight. I'm really hoping for Cantor now. If it can make liberal pigs talk to themselves, it has to be right.
Cantor is a non-human weasel, and that disqualifies him. Even the GOP who handed him his butt last night agree!
I've actually witnessed a weasel eat a heron. I have great respect for weasels (the animal, not the human). I'm afraid your likeness doesn't really disqualify him. If liberals don't like him, it should elevate him. The fact that the heron and the pig don't like him, makes me think he is highly qualified.
Pat, my poor uninformed twit....
Cantor? (Can't do)-not qualified to even scoop up the mess the tea baggers s h i t as they crawl around. I vote for the Bo-nut before the next rear drop falls.
The Grand Old Party aka GOP is done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Probably not anymore done than the Dems were when they got their lunch handed to them in past elections. It goes in cycles...always has, always will.
Millyloon!
Lets sum up the last couple months:
-The GOP LOST the WH
-The GOP LOST seats in the Senate
-The TP LOST 10 seats in the House
-The TP LOST their blockage of a fiscal cliff deal by 90 votes.
Name calling...how mature. You've already posted your clever list before. Try something different if you can.
Wow, Jan. 2 and the libtards are out in numbers on Yahoo. Doesn't bode well for 2013-LOL
Where are the Navy Seals when we need them ? ? ?
You must be one of those NRA loonies, R A S. That's the best you can contribute to the discussion? Kill them? That must have taken a lot of research on your part.
The only drama is what the media will cook up.
Who needs to eat what is cooked up? The nuts that now control the House of Representatives.LOL
Since you ended with LOL, then I assume what preceded it was funny?
Gary Johnson/Rand Paul 2016
Let's vote for the CRIMINALLY insane, not just Tea Stains!
C'mon Herron, these comments are the best you can do? Don't stain your drawers trying to think these things up.
rerere,
Please, Righties, run Gary Johnson and Rand Paul in 2016! Hillary has a lot of easy paths to victory but THAT would be the easiest!
The drama was, according to several news sources that I have read is that the Speaker of the House confronted that weasel Harry Reid and told him to go F*&K himself.
And that is how you expect the Speaker of the House should act?
What if it Boner did it in diapers??? (he did in fact, as he has accidents when he's really drunk....)
No, they are ALL children
No, Herron, it's how I'd expect you to act. You can't get past the playground name calling tactics.
Now, I am sorry for Bo not. I would be crying too if I had to deal with those NUT Cases.
Someone, please sent some white straight jackets to Mr. Bo Nut. He needs help. He needs
to have some of those nuts put away. LOL
Boner is as worthless as teats on a bull. Cantor IS that teat!
Yes! The dead is living on the dead.
Herron and Alice..now there's a couple of in the know think alikes....why don't you two snuggle up at the swing set and think of really funny, clever things you can say...
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results -- Einstein
Re-electing Boehner would be perfect example.
Until we have TERM Limits nothing will change for the good of our country.
The clods in the GOP House just got re-elected last month. Boner ran unopposed (no blockage)!
The simple fact is morons vote! Fox news fans et al!
I suggest you watch some of the lumbering lobotomy specimens that were interviewed after that voting for Obama. In fact in an interview with Charlie Rose the editor of Time mentioned that is what Obama counted on was the "low information" voter. Amen to that
Term limits would be good, but unlikely since the law makers don't want to limit their terms. The Executive branch has term limits, so should the Legislative branch.
Oh please elect Michele Bachmann. We need some more good tea-nutter laughs. I'm tired of looking at Bonehead's orange, alcohol-bloated face, McConnell's jowls, and Cantor's shifty eyes. It's time for old crazy-eyes Bachmann!!!
She shouldn't even be in the house. She became a Swiss citizen during the primary, and therefore denounced her US citizenship!
Wrong!!! she had dual citizenship she obtained this when she married her husband (its common). She also renounced this dual Swiss citizenship last year. Sorry to confuse you with the facts.
Herron is one of those low information people you mentioned earlier. Kind of funny to listen to them pretend they know things.
Let us hope the bumbling Boehner is NOT returned to his post; he is so thick-headed he's holding up real progress re "the cliff."
I'm supporting a return for Nancy Polosi ....or any one but Boehner.
Seriously? Polosi? the you first have to read the bill, before you know whats in the bill (she did not) I hope she is happy, she is as you know a 1% er- Taxes? more taxes please.
C'mon, agedsteak...we're talking about the Speaker of the House post. That goes to the party in control of the House. Pelosi is a member of the minority party in the House. She can't be Speaker...at least for another 2 years.
lol - low information
The GOP needs to have a centralist speaker if they hope to be a political party after 2014. The Tea Party became a joke last night.
Maybe some one that can be respected by those impacted by Sandy!
Out and About......well said, I agree.
Is Michelle Bachman under SERIOUS consideration? God help us all.
Not God help us. But we will have to join the Domes Day's cult
She came close to losing re-election last month. I always had a lot of respect to people in MN (I lived there for a number of years), but the reality is she should have lost in a LANDSLIDE!
Is that the same reality that dictates that Obama should have lost in a landslide even though he was re-elected?
I never knew that the Speaker of the House didn't have to be a member of the House. In that case, how about Colin Powell?
It's never happened. While it might be allowed. Some idiot in Texas nominated Newtron a month or so back.
Colon Powell??? How about MARK LEVIN!
So Ssmith. You want someone that is even more of a moron than Boner???
Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert would be far more entertaining and likely more productive than either Boehner or Cantor. C-SPAN's ratings would go through the roof and the American people might actually get a laugh out of the process once in a while.
As for Mark Levin, he belongs in a GITMO cell along with Grover Norquist and the NRA's Wayne LaPierre, aka the anti-Christ.
Seriously? Mark Latrine?
Here's a Good One:
Al-Jazeera acquires Current TV
Arab television network Al-Jazeera (mouth piece of mid-eastern terrorists) said on Wednesday it will buy Current TV, the cable channel founded by Al Gore and business partner Joel Hyatt in 2005, for undisclosed terms.
The acquisition could give Al-Jazeera access to a broader range of U.S. television viewers. Although its programming is available in some large metropolitan areas, the network's executives have long been frustrated in their efforts to secure carriage deals with TV distributors.
Current TV, which has battled low viewership, is available in 60 million U.S. homes.
AlGore's "Bail Out" is coming from friends of Al Queida..... gotta love those limousine libs, they really don't care where THEIR money comes from.
The second largest owner of News Corp (Fox news) is a Saudi Prince. 15 of the fliers on 9-11 were Saudi!
Based on the crapola News corp has pulled in the UK, they should be barred in the US! (and THROWN IN JAIL!)
Al-Jazeera has changed from an Arabic only broadcast to international. It's media coverage of the Egyptian protetst was widely seen as objective and superior to other outlets.
Aljazeera, especially Aljazeera in America (English version), is one the most focused and neutral news sources on the internet...far superior to CNN, FOX, and dare I say it, my beloved NBCNews.com, formerly known as MSNBC.
For those Righties who see Aljazeera as nothing more than a front for terrorist propoganda, better check under your beds or in your closets tonight for Freddie Krueger before turning in.
...but go ahead if you must, live your lives in fear.
Chick-Fil-A offered to open a sausage squeezing menu in honor of Eric Cantor!
So, Mr. Boehner stands poised to remain the ventriloquist's hand up the back of the decaying corpse with the split personality of that co-opted-from-within body that is the current House Republican majority.
I almost feel sorry for him.
But not quite.
Too funny! Boehner gets pissy and tells Reid to go "f himself" because Reid made the comment that the leader of the House republicans was a "dictator." Boehner is too stupid to even realize that Reid was referring to Grover Norquist.
Boehner is too thinned skin and emotional to be speaker, and it appears his mouth is full of chewing tabacco most of the time. But, Eric Cantor, ugh!
A Speaker of the House who can barely speak......
If these ass-clowns re-elect Boehner as leader, they may go down in history as the largest gathering of worthless douchbags in history. Vote this Piece of sh*t, OUT, you morons, or we'll rip your fuc*ing heads off and put them on pikes!!!
bram....I think you may need to back off on the psychotropics.....
Boehner knew just what he was doing by canceling the Sandy aid bill. I think he may have just pushed Christie into the Dem party. We have a big tent and all but......
Haters lose and losers hate......bye bye tea party.......