General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Here's our new Speaker of the House [View all]DFW
(54,641 posts)A few of the Republican congresscritters are from swing districts, and if they can bring home a little bacon for their districts during a Jeffries-led House, I think there'd be the necessary amount of aisle-crossing to get them to lend us a few votes when we need them. If they saw an uphill battle toward re-election under an extremist Republican Speaker who they fear would drag them down (and do nothing for their districts), they would prefer a rational Democratic Speaker to whom they would be only loosely politically tied, but could nevertheless say, "see? We can work with him if necessary for the good of the people of our district." All politics is still local, at the end of the day. A rational Democratic Speaker could be of vastly more help to a Republican Rep in a swing district than a Republican Speaker who probably couldn't find that rep's state on the map.