I requested a former colleague what William Shakespeare may say in regards to the meandering journey to elect a new Home speaker.
“A real ‘Comedy of Errors,’” got here the response.
If this was “Twelfth Night time,” the Home would have wrapped this up a very long time in the past.
It definitely wasn’t “A lot Ado About Nothing.”
HOW THE GOP CONFERENCE CAME TOGETHER TO ELECT MIKE JOHNSON AS SPEAKER, DESPITE MCCARTHY MEDDLING
Maybe the marathon quest to decide on a speaker was like “As You Like It?”
Home Speaker nominee Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks beside fellow members after being nominated for Home Speaker, contained in the Longworth Home Workplace Constructing on the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, October 24, 2023. (Tom Brenner)
Nevertheless, it was thought that after the hurly-burly, the Home may really re-elect its deposed chief, former Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., after it dethroned him. There have been even prices that McCarthy and his allies have been attempting to execute a return to energy behind the scenes.
Now that may be Shakespearean.
Home Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., seized the GOP’s nomination for speaker for 4 hours and ten minutes on Tuesday, earlier than withdrawing.
Former President Trump made positive of that.
“Tom Emmer, it seems to be like he’s completed. He was not a supporter. He was a RINO,” thundered Mr. Trump.
One may say there was some semblance of “Richard III” as soon as the previous president bought concerned.
Others piled on.
U.S. Home Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) was operating for the Speakership earlier than dropping out forward of Johnson’s victory. (Win McNamee)
“I can’t associate with placing some of the average members of the whole Republican Convention within the speaker’s chair,” argued Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. “That betrays the conservative values that I got here right here to battle for.”
“There are some individuals criticizing him for that, which I feel is flawed,” stated Fitzpatrick.
“He didn’t object to Joe Biden’s Electoral School votes. He voted with the Democrats to overturn President Trump’s ban on transgenders within the navy,” stated Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
“The voter base, I feel they’re making it fairly clear they don’t need Tom Emmer to be speaker,” stated Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., of Emmer.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., stated that Republicans tore Emmer up as a result of he had voted to certify the 2020 presidential election outcomes.
“All’s Effectively, that Ends Effectively?” Hardly.
The previous colleague wrote that Congress had formally entered “‘Othello’ standing” as soon as Emmer bowed out.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the Home after Rep. Matt Gaetz launched a movement to vacate the seat. (Tom Brenner)
McCarthy, Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise, R-La., Jordan and Emmer.
To be, or to not be was definitely the query for this quartet.
However as Cassius stated to Brutus in “Julius Caesar,” “It’s not within the stars to carry our future however in ourselves.”
Shakespeare and politics are amongst my favourite topics, however I really didn’t assume any of the aforementioned performs or quotations from the Bard fairly did the mayhem over the speakership justice.
So, I brushed up my Shakespeare.
I lastly landed on what is probably Shakespeare’s most obscure work: “Pericles, Prince of Tyre.”
“Pericles” isn’t a family identify like “Hamlet” or “King Lear.” It’s hardly ever carried out. In reality, teachers query whether or not Shakespeare even wrote the entire thing.
OCTOBER 13: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) speaks to reporters as Home Republicans maintain a caucus assembly on the Longworth Home Workplace Constructing. (Win McNamee)
The explanation “Pericles” is held in such low regard: the play is messy. The textual content is jangly. The plot is uneven. The manufacturing is troublesome to stage. The present drifts aimlessly into an odyssey with motion unfolding in six distinct locales. It’s difficult for the viewers to understand the significance of every setting.
Like Pericles, the speaker drama was episodic. For Act I, the scene was set in McCarthy-land. Then set sail for Scalise-land. Then Jordan-land (or ought to it simply be “Jordan”?). Then, Emmer-ville. Lastly, the Home arrived in “Johnson Parish” with the election of Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
Who?
Johnson is to the speakership as to what “Pericles” is to the Shakespeare canon.
We’re not speaking about Sam Rayburn or Tip O’Neill right here.
“Pericles” is one in every of Shakespeare’s shorter performs at a mere 2,462 strains. In contrast, “Hamlet“ is Shakespeare’s longest work. It clocks in at greater than 4,000 strains — however a meager 18 characters.
There are 24 characters in “Pericles.” In the entire iterations of the October speaker sweepstakes, an astonishing 14 Republicans have been declared candidates for the job at one time or one other. A complete of 15 completely different individuals obtained votes for speaker on the ground.
Shakespearean students have even struggled to categorise the obscure play. Is it a comedy? Is it a tragedy? Many theatrical specialists establish “Periclese” as a “tragicomedy.”
The identical may very well be stated in regards to the election of speaker.
Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Steve Scalise of Louisiana each launched bids for Home speaker. (Chip Somodevilla)
The present begins with Pericles listening to a riddle. A king affords his lovely daughter to marry anybody who solutions the riddle appropriately. However they are going to be killed if they’re flawed.
Pericles is aware of that he’ll die if he botches the reply to the riddle, however he is aware of the reply. The king is having an incestuous relationship along with his daughter. Thus, Pericles concludes that if he tells the reality, he will probably be killed, too.
That sort of “damned in case you do, damned in case you don’t” paradox is the quintessence of the trendy speakership. McCarthy confronted one destiny if he have been to fail to elevate the debt ceiling or keep away from a authorities shutdown. And if he confronted one other doomed destiny if he . . . .
Effectively, the remainder is historical past.
Mike Johnson faces the identical conundrum as McCarthy.
If he strikes to keep away from a authorities shutdown . . . .
But when he doesn’t meet sure conservative calls for on authorities funding . . . .
Republicans spent weeks jogging from one candidate to a different, holding forth a imaginative and prescient to elect one Speaker however then dashing these probabilities simply hours later. For example, Republicans bounced Jordan due to his behind-the-scenes threats and bullying.
Consultant Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, speaks after changing into speaker of the Home within the Home Chamber on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, October 25, 2023. (Ting Shen)
“Who makes the fairest present means most deceit,” wrote Shakespeare in “Pericles.”
Republicans swapped out Jordan for Emmer. Emmer’s nomination for speaker lasted 4 hours. That didn’t even qualify as a one-act. Maybe a sonnet for Emmer.
Some specialists imagine that George Wilkins wrote the primary two acts of “Pericles.” He then may need introduced within the Bard to wash issues up and write the ultimate acts.
There are parallels with that on Capitol Hill.
McCarthy began the present. Then, after a lot of drama, the Home recruited Johnson to complete.
On Johnson’s first full day on the job, the speaker discovered himself speeding to a gathering on the Capitol with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“Did you assume that may be your first job as speaker,” I requested Johnson
“I didn’t,” he replied with a smile.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets with U.S. Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson (R-LA) on the U.S. Capitol October 26, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Albanese visited the White Home on Wednesday for an official state go to and a state dinner. (Drew Angerer)
Thursday was emblematic of the frenzied nature of the speakership. At one second, Johnson was huddling with Albanese. A couple of minutes later, he spoke off the cuff to the press corps in regards to the shootings in Maine. By afternoon, Johnson was on the White Home with different Congressional leaders discussing the Center East and Ukraine.
The day was as discordant because the scenes in “Pericles.”
Maybe the most effective citation to sum up Johnson’s problem seems not in “Pericles,” however “The Tempest.”
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“What’s previous is prologue,” wrote the Bard in Act II, Scene 1 of “The Tempest.”
For the Home, a brand new man. However the identical members. And the identical issues.
Stick round for the following act.
