Louie Gohmert Says He's Gathering the 29 Votes Needed to Depose John Boehner

Just 29 Republican votes are needed.

Here's how it works, if I understand this. Boehner wins on the first ballot if and only if he receives a majority of all votes cast.

Now, the Democrats will not be voting for him. Obviously. (Though they might wind up throwing some votes to him for strategic reasons, maybe.) That means that Boehner needs something like 207 votes to win.

So if just 29 Republicans vote for someone else, Boehner does not win on the first ballot.

And here's the cool part: If he doesn't win on the first ballot, some people who have actually behaved rather cowardly will pretend to be courageous and start offering themselves as Speaker, To Save America And Stuff. And then it gets pretty serious, as far as selecting a different speaker.

So they idea if if Boehner can be thwarted on the first ballot, he's very likely to lose outright on the second (and following) ballots.

They usually say the insurgents already have 12-20 votes; so they don't have to pick up too many to get to 29.

Gohmert said the effort to dethrone Boehner in 2012 was closer than many realized and that only at the last minute did a handful of Boehner opponents back down, thwarting the coup.

"John Boehner came within two hours of losing the speakership," Gohmert said."It was so close, I was surprised he would even try again."

posted by Ace at 11:41 AM

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