House Republican infighting over Speaker race just got even uglier tonight

House Republicans narrowly picked Steve Scalise over Jim Jordan earlier today to be their nominee for Speaker of the House. It was a good reminder that in spite of the endless headlines to the contrary, Donald Trump – who loudly endorsed Jordan – has never had any real influence over this Republican House. In fact no one is calling the shots when it comes to this dumpster fire.

We saw more evidence of this when House Republicans announced they would hold a full floor vote later today to elect Scalise, only to have to turn around and call it off after several House Republicans publicly vowed to vote against Scalise. Now it’s gotten even uglier tonight.

Jim Jordan’s allies are leaking that Steve Scalise has spent more than half a million dollars in campaign money at the Capital Grille over the past twelve years. This is the kind of scandal that – if it gets any traction – won’t just hurt Scalise’s bid for Speaker, it could also hurt him with his own constituents and even potentially with campaign finance regulators.

Of course this new Scalise scandal might not go anywhere, given that the Republican House has too many overlapping and cascading scandals for them all to fit into the news headlines. But the mere fact that certain House Republicans are trying to make this a scandal, and trying to take Scalise’s legs out, simply in the hope of allowing someone else to become Speaker, shows what a chaotic clown show this is.

It’s not just that the Republican House has corrupt intent on the whole. It’s that individual House Republicans each are so focused on their own personal corrupt agendas, they’re willing to kneecap each other. If that’s how they want to play this, then we might as well just make some popcorn for now and then gear up to take back the House majority in 2024.