Emmer the evanescent
By 
House Republicans have put up another patsy after a mere five ballots:
Tom Emmer won the House GOP’s speakership nomination after a grueling set of secret ballots Tuesday, teeing up his next and more challenging task — winning on the floor.
The Republican whip secured a majority of the conference, 117-97, according to two people familiar with the tally. But there are still significant doubts that the Minnesotan has the near-unanimous GOP support needed to secure the gavel from the full House.
He has not yet revealed his strategy for when he plans to take his candidacy to the floor — which he could do as soon as later Tuesday. But his allies have made clear he hopes to avoid the highly public spectacle that ended up dooming Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) by calling for a floor vote only after he’s landed the 217 votes he needs through private conversations beforehand.
As the GOP’s chief vote-counter, Emmer has had nine months of experience trying to wrangle votes from across the Republican conference with a four-seat margin for error. His allies have argued that those skills could help him cross the 217 threshold, getting him the speakership that Jordan and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) could not lock down this month.
Yet Emmer will need to win over his own group of holdouts if he wants to avoid being the third speaker nominee to go down after Kevin McCarthy’s ouster three weeks ago. That includes a bloc of dug-in Emmer skeptics that include allies of former President Donald Trump.
Hmm, allies of Donald Trump — wonder how that’s going?
TRUMP issues attack against Emmer at critical time — just after he gets nomination and is working to nail down votes to get enough support for a floor vote.
Calls him a “RINO” – Republican in Name Only – on Truth Social pic.twitter.com/sIzKXjPEmr— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) October 24, 2023
Well, we’ll see who the fourth guy to step up to the dunk tank is soon enough.