Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business;

Welcome to the 117th Congress. Buckle up.

The first test of Pelosi’s razor-thin majority comes Sunday, when the newly sworn-in House elects its speaker. Democrats have a 222-211 edge, with one race still undecided and a vacancy after Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, a Louisiana Republican, died Tuesday of COVID-19.

It’s the narrowest margin of control since the 1930s. A House majority requires 218 seats. After 18 years of leading her party in the House, Pelosi is unopposed for what is expected to be her final term as speaker. Republicans are expected to support Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, meaning Pelosi can afford to lose only a few Democratic votes and still win the gavel.

In 2018, 15 Democrats did not vote for Pelosi; 10 of them are still in Congress. She is expected to win, but members could wrest promises from her about rule changes or legislation to secure their votes. Ed Pagano, who was a top legislative advisor to President Obama, laughed at the idea that a Democrat would cast a protest vote against Pelosi when it could cost their party control of the chamber. “She knows her caucus really well,” he said, adding that he didn’t see how she could lose.

But once that vote is complete, Pelosi will have to wrangle the discordant portions of her caucus, which faces a burgeoning intraparty battle between moderates and progressives over how best to govern. Opposition to Trump has helped hold them together, but a tight margin means a handful of members from any faction — such as the so-called Squad, a group of young progressive women — will be able to block legislation. And they know it. “Speaker Pelosi has her work cut out for her,” Pagano said. “It’s going to be tricky.”

While the chances of derailing Biden’s victory are virtually nonexistent — doing so would require the Democratic-controlled House, for instance, to reject electoral votes for Biden — the event provides a stage for Republican lawmakers seeking to court Trump loyalists, who may be influential in the GOP for years to come, by proclaiming their fealty to the president.

The conflict began Saturday evening, when a group of 11 Republican senators announced they would join Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in challenging the electoral tally of one or more states, making it clear the revolt would not be a minor affair but would involve more than one-fifth of Senate Republicans.

Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) responded in a blistering statement that the effort “directly undermines” Americans’ right to choose their leaders, and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called it an “egregious ploy.” Hawley shot back that Toomey and others were engaging in “shameless personal attacks.”

The back-and-forth spread throughout the party on Sunday as lawmakers returned to the Capitol for the swearing-in. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), among the challengers, argued the effort was no different from Democratic objections to the 1969 and 2005 counts. In those instances, however, the losing candidate had long since conceded, and the dissent was marginal. “Our democracy is strong enough to handle conversations about electoral integrity issues,” Lankford said. Should the challenges be rejected Wednesday, Lankford said he would “absolutely” accept Biden as the rightful president. “Our goal is obviously to try to get the facts out, more than to be able to vote against the electors,” he added.

Both Lankford and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), a former House member who was sworn in Sunday as a senator, said they were signing on to the challenge as a response to concerns from constituents worried about electoral improprieties.

But many Republicans appeared distraught that the move would put party members on record as fighting the clear outcome of a democratic election.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said lawmakers had “a solemn responsibility to accept these electoral college votes that have been certified” by state officials. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) added, “I think the overwhelming weight of the evidence is that Joe Biden defeated my candidate, Donald Trump, and I have to live with it.”

Late Sunday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) issued a statement saying that he shares the “concerns of many Arkansans about irregularities in the presidential election,” but that the Founders “entrusted our elections chiefly to the states—not Congress,” and that he therefore will not oppose the counting of certified electoral votes.

The rare open conflict was an embarrassing spectacle for McConnell, who has for weeks urged Republicans to refrain from disputing the electoral tally. McConnell fears it will force his members into a politically difficult choice of either defying Trump or rejecting the electorate’s verdict.

highdesert wrote: Mon Jan 04, 2021 1:35 am

Nancy Pelosi retained the speakership, the vote was 216 to 209.