Rep. Matt Gaetz did it by himself…..
It’s still that way…..
Republicans want to change that….
How many members should be able to call for a vote ‘of confidence ‘ for a Speaker to keep their job….
Members seem to mostly agree that they shouldn’t continue to allow just one of them the power to cause such bedlam, for both the party and the institution. That’s too risky for many GOP lawmakers, some of whom are still infuriated by the three-week leadership vacuum that resulted after McCarthy’s Oct. 3 firing.
“It served its purpose. We got everybody’s attention, and they understand we mean business,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said in an interview, adding that changing the rule isn’t “a beach I’m going to die on.”
The eight who helped oust McCarthy have shown no signs of regret, and none of them have committed outright to changing the rule to “vacate” the speakership. So it’s far from clear that Republicans will ultimately be able to adjust the policy, especially given the significant split on a new threshold and the GOP’s razor-thin majority that requires near unity or help from Democrats.
On one side, Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) floated requiring the support of 112 members of either party to trigger a vote on stripping the speaker’s gavel. On the other, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — one of the eight who voted to oust McCarthy — threw out upping the current threshold from a single member to something like seven.
“The motion to vacate threshold was never my cause in January,” Biggs said in a brief interview, adding that while it “needs to be reasonable and rational so it remains a real tool … maybe one is too little.”…..