GOP.GOV has a graphic of Rep. John Boehner that proclaims him as the new House Majority Leader. RedState had been tracking the votes, and on the second ballot, after Rep. John Shadegg dropped out of the race, Boehner picked up a majority of his supporters to beat incumbent Rep. Roy Blunt, who lead after the first ballot.
While Boehner might not be the darling to conservatives that Shadegg was, his victory should be a refreshing change to those who think that a change from the DeLay/Blunt era needed to occur.
Mike Krempasky at Red State says the final vote was 122-109 for Boehner.
Expect much discussion of this upset at the Wizbang Bomb Squad. If you’re not part of the Squad, go ahead and sign up.
I’ll be the first to predict that the Left will use his name creatively………..
Great… an Ohio Republican is the perfect choice to ensure competence, probity, and clean governance!
My ass.
Johno,
Not all Ohio Republicans are nimrods. There’s Ken Blackwell; he’s a good guy…….
I wonder what effect this will have on the ethics case against Jim McDermott.
Yeah, Blackwell’s great. Real responsive too. If you write him a letter he’ll respond personally, but only if you write it on the correct weight of paper.
JohnAnnArbor,
Wasn’t Blackwell asleep at the switch as the rare coin pension fund scandal went down?
Besides, I shouldn’t leave Ohio Democrats out of it. Jim Traficant was a Democrat, which suggests that venality in Ohio politics is endemic, rather than just party-driven.
I wonder what effect this will have on the ethics case against Jim McDermott.
he looks like the warden from the Shawshank movie.
I wonder what effect this will have on the ethics case against Jim McDermott.
Now there’s two words that shouldn’t be in the same sentence: Jim McDermott and ethics.
As a voter in “Baghadad Jim’s” 7th District of Seattle, I can assure you the man has no ethics or morals. Which explains why he won 82% of the vote last time out–the people in his district (save 18% of us) don’t have ethics or morals, either. I fear we are stuck with this liberal and hypocritical windbag until Mt. Rainier erupts.
Other than that, you ask a fine question that I don’t know the answer to.
I don’t know if you noticed, but they had to throw out the first vote, because there were more total votes than Republican congressmen. You’d think after stealing so many elections the Republicans would learn to count a little better.
Wrong, Chris.
(second-to-last paragraph)
The leadership election was marked initially by confusion when it appeared that the number of ballots cast exceeded the number of eligible voters by one. It turned out that clerks had left Luis Fortuno, the resident commissioner of Puerto Rico, off their list. He is not allowed to vote on the House floor but does have voting rights in the GOP’s internal deliberations.
But don’t let facts get in the way of a good story.
You’d think after lying about the Republicans stealing so many elections the Democrats would learn how to pay attention to the facts.
So you’re saying the votes in the first ballot did add up? I guess that’s what I get for reading National Review Online, that said “More ballots cast than there are members. Re-voting now….” Those damned lying conservatives.
Well whaddaya know, Jon Stewart made creative use of Boehner’s name, just as I had predicted. As a bonus, he also recycled the “voting irregularity” meme. Good times, good times.