Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution states: "The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers." The Speaker is elected by roll call vote when each new House first convenes. Customarily, the conference of each major party nominates a candidate whose name is placed in nomination. Although the Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a member of the House, all Speakers have been members. Members normally vote for the candidate of their own party conference, but could vote for any individual, whether nominated or not.Love that Jane-Austenish "chuse" btw.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
"Glenn Beck Should be Speaker of the House"
... is the modest proposal by Evan Schnidman, who points out some Constitutional trivia I'd never noticed: the Speaker does not have to be a member of Congress.
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I've got a post I'm cogitating about this election and haven't fully figured it out. Datapoints:
ReplyDeleteNY Times front page piece says Sen. DeMint, the "brains" behind the tea party if there is one, did not know who Rbt Novak was when he was elected to Congresss.
After two elections of phenomenal growth by the Democrats, the concept of regression to the mean (without more) points toward a bad time. Is the notion that the president loses during midterms anything other than that?
Pew poll out today, unadjusted by their likely voting mojo: Democrats on the "generic ballot" lead by 1 point. Lead. But adjusting they are behind by 8 points, which the guy from Pew told All Things Considered was the longest spread from actual data to adjusted data in "a long, long time." What if they've got likely voter predictions off?
Each election since... I have no idea when?... has had 40% of the vote on each side, informed to whatever degree, and then in the middle a big mushy 20% of completely ill-informed folks who think there's a virtue in "independence," and don't have a clue what they are doing and actually decide the election. Perhaps, 'twas ever thus.
And last, Gary Wills, who is as independent as a person can be, in answers to the NY Times Magazine column Deborah Solomon does, talks about becoming persona non grata at the White House for telling Obama to get out of Afganistan, says he will vote the party line and why and what that means.
Suggestions would be appreciated.
Just e-mailed you an item suggesting that, on purely structural grounds, the Dems are modeled to lose 45 seats ... never mind Obama, healthcare, Sarah Palin, whatever.
ReplyDeleteRe: predictions, the "cell phone effect" is only going to grow with each election. Will this be the one where it makes a difference?
Still, the bottom line is that the Dems are going to get hosed. Obama continued this weekend with his "don't vote for the guys who got us in this mess" shtick, which pollsters have tested and found to be an absolutely lousy message rhetorically.
Perhaps, as so often before, the Onion's analysis is best:
Democrats: 'If We're Gonna Lose, Let's Go Down Running Away From Every Legislative Accomplishment We've Made.'