For those paying attention, Nancy Pelosi’s Speakership is now barely hanging by a thread!
With deaths, resignations, resolved election contests, and special elections conducted, Pelosi’s Dems as of this day in May now hold only a 218-212 razor-thin margin. With Republican solidarity and just four defecting Democrats, Pelosi loses her grip on the majority—216-214.
If Pelosi’s erratic antics continue to alienate just four, only four members in her own caucus, then a rules suspension vote, followed by a Motion to Vacate the Chair, would set up a vote to depose Speaker Pelosi, culminating in her removal by the same 216-214 margin—consisting of 212 Republicans and four Democrats.
Who would then take over the gavel? That would be a compromise Democrat House member palatable to the four Democrats and the 212 Republican House members—OR, MOST LIKELY, a Democrat who is palatable to the 218 seated House Democrats.
Although he or she would not portend an ideological change per se, said new Speaker would evince a procedural, stylistic, collegial and temperament change that even Republicans would prefer over Pelosi.
There is a recently similar precedent for removal of US House Speaker. In 2015, GOP Member Mark Meadows filed a Motion to Vacate against fellow Republican Speaker John Boehner, culminating in Boehner’s subsequent resignation as Speaker.
The membrane between “power” and “pauper” often is among the thinnest and most fragile. Furthermore, the U.S. House mid-term elections next year may accomplish the very same outcome contemplated above. Food for Thought.
Author: Jon Jacobsen, B.S.B.A., J.D.
Rep. Jon A. Jacobsen, J.D. (R-Council Bluffs), is newly re-elected member of the Iowa Legislature, as Iowa State Representative from District 22 (Pottawattamie County). Jacobsen serves in the House as Vice-Chairman of the Commerce Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Ethics Committee, and in addition is seated on the State Government and Agriculture Appropriations Committees. Jon won his 2016 election by the largest percentage margin of votes in modern district history, engendering a huge voter turnout of nearly 75% of all registered district voters for a mid-term, non-Senate cycle. A married father of three, Jon is a bank senior trust officer/vice president, attorney (Univ. of Iowa Law alumnus), and has won a dozen Iowa Broadcast News Association Awards for Radio programming, including for Political Coverage, Public Affairs, In-Depth Series, Feature, and Overall Best Use of Online Media.
