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Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers of The Police all yelled into the digital camera: “I need my MTV!”
Then got here Pat Benatar, doing the identical factor, adopted by Pete Townshend of The Who, all demanding their “MTV.”
Lastly, The Police present again up on the display. They warble one thing which sounds roughly just like the tune of “God Relaxation Ye Merry Gentleman.” Then hoist phone receivers.
“Name your cable firm… and sing ‘I need my MTV!’” The Police ordered.
And to suppose that lawmakers had been mad about TikTok imploring youngsters to telephone Congress, urging a no vote on a invoice to curb use of the social media app within the U.S.
Nicely, there are a couple of lawmakers who need their MTV, too. Many really want it could go away.
With regards to MTV, we’re not speaking about “Music Tv.”
SPEAKER JOHNSON: I UNDERSTAND AND AGREE WITH REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE’S CONCERNS
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a movement to unseat Speaker Mike Johnson. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photographs)
On this occasion, MTV means a “movement to vacate” the chair. That’s the formal parliamentary maneuver to power a speaker of the Home out the door. However in congressional shorthand, it is an “MTV.”
When do Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood and Alan Hunter present up?
So guess who needs her MTV?
MTG – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
Video Killed the Radio Star. However a profitable MTV may kill the political way forward for Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
Greene not too long ago prepped an MTV, telling Johnson to Beat It. This is identical gambit Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., engineered to oust former Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., final fall.
A profitable MTV may kill the political way forward for Home Speaker Mike Johnson. (Getty Photographs)
“Speaker Johnson has betrayed our convention and damaged our guidelines,” Greene mentioned after introducing her measure final month to take away the speaker.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE FILES MOTION TO OUST SPEAKER JOHNSON
She was incensed that Johnson acceded to an settlement with Democrats to keep away from a authorities shutdown and ignored the Home’s inside “72 hour rule” to learn laws earlier than taking a vote. The Home handed the invoice, 286-134. However solely 101 Republicans supported it in comparison with 112 no’s – regardless of the GOP operating the Home.
“This invoice was mainly a dream and a want checklist for Democrats and the White Home,” Greene mentioned. “I don’t want to inflict ache on our convention and throw the Home into chaos. However that is mainly a warning. It’s time for us to undergo the method. Take our time. And discover a new speaker of the Home that can stand with Republicans and our Republican majority as an alternative of standing with Democrats.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene talks as President Biden delivers his State of the Union tackle on March 1, 2022. (AP Picture/J. Scott Applewhite, Pool, File)
Greene added that “the clock has began.”
Clock the Coronary heart? Boy George and Tradition Membership? Hardly. It’s extra like Greene is channeling “With or With out You” by U2 in relation to Johnson.
The speaker would possibly favor one other choice. Maybe the legendary video Take On Me by the band a-ha.
So who precisely would “tackle” Johnson? Who would need the job? May the Republican-controlled Home even elect a brand new speaker? Home Republicans churned via three speaker candidates and greater than three weeks earlier than they settled on Johnson final fall.
Johnson could also be left saying “domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,” if Greene forges forward together with her transfer.
It’s necessary to notice that Greene didn’t set off her MTV straight away. A “movement to vacate the chair” is of excessive privilege within the Home. If Greene insists that the Home contemplate her no confidence vote for Johnson, the Home should carry it up on the spot or inside two legislative days. The Home is out of session till April 8, so nothing will occur straight away. However observe that Greene’s MTV measure doesn’t belong to her. Now that Greene introduced her MTV, any Home member may seize it and require the Home to contemplate it. The decision just isn’t Greene’s “prerogative,” as Bobby Brown would possibly sing.
It’s even potential – however unlikely – that the Home Republican management or a Johnson ally may put Greene’s decision on the ground and power a vote in the event that they thought the speaker would prevail. That transfer would euthanize Greene’s effort and reveal that Johnson has the help he wants to stay speaker. Consider that transfer as calling Greene’s bluff to indicate that Johnson would have the votes to defeat an rebellion.
Former Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the Home within the fall of 2023. (Kent Nishimura)
Greene’s tactic mirrors what former Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., did in the summertime of 2015. The longer term Trump White Home chief of workers drafted a really related decision to attempt to oust then-Home Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. However like Greene, Meadows simply filed his movement. He didn’t launch it, requiring the Home to contemplate the plan.
No idiot, Boehner took a web page out of Younger MC’s songbook and busted a transfer out of Congress by autumn.
Final October’s shock removing of McCarthy adopted the same path with the MTV. Gaetz crafted a decision to demand a confidence vote on the previous speaker.
“We intend to make use of it,” mentioned Gaetz, including {that a} MTV “just isn’t one thing that we placed on a shelf to admire.”
Nonetheless, for what it’s value, a duplicate of Gaetz’s decision was found on a child altering desk within the first ground males’s room of the Capitol. Actually.
McCarthy was doomed as quickly as he put an interim spending invoice on the ground and handed it principally with Democratic votes in late September. Gaetz demanded the Home contemplate his MTV shortly thereafter. The primary vote was on the movement to desk or put aside the decision. However McCarthy lacked the help to outlive on the movement to desk. Had the Home voted to desk, Gaetz’s gig was up. However the Home defeated the movement to desk. That prompted an up/down vote on the MTV itself. And the Home voted to throw out its speaker for the primary time in historical past.
GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz was behind the decision to oust former Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker. (Aaron Schwartz/Getty Photographs)
Or as Prince would possibly sing in “1999,” “Life is only a social gathering. And events weren’t meant to final.”
It’s usually believed that Johnson would possibly fare higher than McCarthy if Greene made her MTV “reside.” To start with, members from either side had been totally exasperated eventually fall’s calisthenics to elect a brand new speaker. Second, it’s believed a Democrat or two could intervene to salvage Johnson and keep a modicum of continuity within the Home.
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However right here’s the rub: The Home Republican majority has shriveled to only a few votes. On any given day, a lawmaker might be out sick, or attending a funeral, have a flight canceled. The best (or mistaken) cocktail of votes current within the Home on any given day makes this a precarious place for Johnson.
To cite the philosopher-king Jon Bon Jovi, Johnson could also be “Livin’ on a Prayer.”
Chad Pergram presently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX Information Channel (FNC). He joined the community in September 2007 and relies out of Washington, D.C.
