'Empty promises': Ex-White House reporter says Jordan's tactics are exploding in his face

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) lost his first vote to be confirmed Speaker of the House, with double the number of Republican defectors than his allies were expecting. House leaders are planning for another vote soon, but it's unclear how any of the Republicans against Jordan can be swayed, leaving the House in its current state of limbo with no obvious path forward.

Jordan himself carries some of the blame for this, wrote former White House reporter Brian Karem for Salon, who argued the far-right Freedom Caucus stalwart's "threats and empty promises" are undermining Congress — whether or not they continue to fail, or ultimately secure him the job.

"The U.S. government stands as a mockery to its intentions, and the disease that was formerly in the White House now runs wild in Congress. This iteration of insanity is harder to handle because there are literally dozens of morons running loose, unfettered, without hope or prayer of finding a sane moment," wrote Karem, who argued none of this can be separated from former President Donald Trump's actics, including the civil and criminal legal cases against him.

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"Trump wailed in distress, both hunted and haunted by his own actions. Along with millions of his followers, Trump was holding out for his last hope: the election of loyal sycophant Jim Jordan as speaker," wrote Karem. "Beyond here be dragons. House Republicans have apparently lashed themselves to the mooring of their sinking ship, floundering in a storm of their own making. They are not unlike toddlers sloshing back and forth in the bathtub and crying about the results."

The fundamental problem, he wrote, is that like many of the current crop of Republicans, Jordan isn't a politician who ever had an intention of governing, as demonstrated by his scant legislative record. Rather he, "came in a foul stench to tear it all down and piss on it, wearing a tie but no jacket, a perpetual sneer and the general demeanor of a waiter in a cheap diner surviving three-day shifts on speed and coffee."

"Even if Republicans somehow came together over the last three days and decided to elect a new speaker, the problems inside the GOP and the House remain deep desert canyons in American politics," concluded Karem. "And a great many people both in government and among those who observe it closely can see no path through the desert."