Ken Buck Teases More Republican Resignations Are Coming

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published Mar 13, 2024 at 3:20 AM EDT | Updated Mar 13, 2024 at 6:45 AM EDT


Colorado House Republican Ken Buck has hinted the GOP could suffer more resignations after announcing he will step down at the end of the week, further shrinking his party's already wafer thin majority in the chamber.

When asked by Axios whether he was coming under pressure from colleagues over his decision to resign, Buck replied: "I think it's the next three people that leave that they're going to be worried about."

The Context

Buck's move will reduce the number of House Republicans to 218, against 213 Democrats, at a time when Speaker Mike Johnson is already struggling to impose his authority over the chamber.

Once widely seen as a conservative hardliner, Buck has more recently attracted attention for opposing his colleagues' efforts to impeach President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/ken-buck-teases-more-republican-resignations-coming-1878601

[marble falls]

1. Let them all fall out in the next few weeks. I'd like to see Johnson loose the gavel to a Democrat ...

... before the election.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. fall out?

the window?

[marble falls]

6. The window? ...

... if necessary.

[KS Toronado]

24. Accidentally?

[marble falls]

35. Either way, they're both on the menu. It'll be listed as unsafe cigarette smoking at any rate. Or a Ukraine drone.

[Captain Zero]

63. It's always an accident.

I'm pretty sure.

[Omnipresent]

2. I can fit that Republican house plurality in my VW!

[nuxvomica]

3. Anyone have ideas on who those next three are?

I know there's a chance Boebert may have to resign to enter the special election but I'm not sure she would be one of the three Buck mentioned.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. very interesting.

[mopinko]

8. i know several have announced they arent running again.

but dont remember who. anyone?

[nuxvomica]

9. Mike Gallagher maybe?

He called the Insurrection "banana-republic crap" and voted against impeaching Mayorkas.

https://apnews.com/article/mike-gallagher-retirement-impeachment-mayorkas-wisconsin-a125c50142905225ae58f7f36f9bd1e1

[2naSalit]

10. Maybe Rosendle...

He's been backing out of even running for re-election all of a sudden. I saw something about a rumor of him and sexual impropriety yesterday, have to research that but if true, he'll be bailing sooner than later, I hope.

[moreland01]

36. She just dropped out of the running for the vacancy.

Called Buck resigning a swamp maneuver. LOL I'm now thoroughly confused with who the swamp is supposed to be.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Partisan cleansing from inside Freedom Caucus

Has he become tired of Boebert , Perry, Gaetz? MTG was the first ejected.

[mcar]

11. Speaker Jeffries may be here sooner than we think

[tanyev]

12. Oh, man, that would be amazing.

[sheshe2]

31. Make it so!!!

[calimary]

59. That would be TERRIFIC!!!

[electric_blue68]

62. Oh, please Yes! 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞👍

[Deuxcents]

13. Don't tease us..tell us who they are!

[SpankMe]

14. I hope the DNC is looking at this closely

They should be having periodic tag-up meetings, laying out flowcharts, conducting brainstorming sessions on almost a daily basis. They should be making tactical decisions as to where to place ads, when to place ads, how to mobilize the ground force...any level of granularity to get the house back ASAP.

With the house this evenly divided, a surgical operation is needed to get it back. Big picture stuff (i.e., sweeping discussions on policy) won't cut it in these razor thinly divided districts. It's down to pure tactics and engineering at this point.

[orangecrush]

53. I hope they do just this

Precisely.

[PortTack]

15. Speaker Hakeem Jeffries...love it!!

[Cheezoholic]

22. Thats all we here at the ranch have been talking about

Dems could possibly take the house by doing nothing and use Matty the Rapists own stupid rule and make Hakeem Speaker. This is why many of us here were so adamant to just stay out of the original Speaker fiasco. They'll drive their own clown car off the cliff, they don't need any help lol.

[sheshe2]

34. They are a train wreck.Hop aboard.

[PortTack]

57. Absolutely!!

[Novara]

16. He fucked over Boebert.

She can't run for his seat unless she resigns her seat.

I wonder if that was purposeful.

[Rebl2]

18. I hope so

[cilla4progress]

20. Ya thinque?

Mwah ha ha!

[DLCWIdem]

49. You can be sure it was

[colorado_ufo]

55. Pretty good guess.

They could not be less alike!

[et tu]

17. republicanoscopy-

there you go, let it all out and take it home~

[moreland01]

38. Just lay there and enjoy it, republicans!

And don't worry, you can't get pregnant if it's rape.

/s

[cilla4progress]

19. I'm ready for Speaker Jeffries!!

Are you?!

[OMGWTF]

21. Shitler Jr said there is no more Republican party -- it's the MAGAt party now!!

IOW, anyone who has any sense of decency is no longer welcome. I love how they told Nikki Haley's supporters that they aren't welcome either. Hahahahaha!

[PlutosHeart]

23. I dedicate this to all and any R Congressmen who

will be brave enough and smart enough to leave.

[patphil]

25. The way I see it, Boebert can't run in the special election unless she resigns first.

She would have to resign her seat first, since she's already an elected member until the end of this year.
But, if there is a primary, she could be beat by another Republican, and thus be left out in the cold.
Given the strong majority of Republicans in Buck's district, I expect the special election will elect another Republican, but if the above scenario played out, the Republicans would be down to 217 for a while.
NY-26 special election on April 30th to replace Brian Higgins should easily go to the Democrats.
That could leave the House at 217 to 214!
I know there are a lot of "ifs", but I'm sure it's keeping Republicans up late at night worrying about their hold on the House.

[underpants]

29. She's done

She’s at best third in the polling in CO-4. She will be out 🤞 after the June 18th primary.

You are right, if she wants to run in the special election she has to resign her current seat and it’s unlikely she wins the special. Her act has worn out and

[patphil]

30. I think Rep Buck played that one well.

He knew he was out due to his anti-Trump stance, so he saw a way to take Boebert out also.

[Captain Zero]

64. If Buck really wanted to screw them over he could run

as an independent in the special election and split the republican vote enough to hand it to a dem.

[ProfessorGAC]

56. But, But, But...

...her tantrum post today says she's leading that race by 25%.
She couldn't be lying, could she? That's hard to believe.

[Blue Owl]

26. Die, GOP... DIE!!!

[Traildogbob]

27. Why not switch parties

And weed the traitors out? That would do much more good, fight for democracy, don’t just run away as a coward with your pensions.

[Shipwack]

37. No. Definitely not. Most notly. Hell no!

I understand the sentiment, but he's still a conservative. Just because he doesn't support fascism doesn't mean he will vote with us, or for our agenda.

For years we've had two members of Congress that were Democrats in name, but opposed us and backstabbed us over key legislation. I don't care that they voted with us over naming post offices or standard budget measures; Mancin and Sinema are the reason we don't have voting rights legislation, a better healthcare system, and better wages.

There is such a thing as having too big a tent...

[moreland01]

39. He was a frickin Tea Bagger, for Christ's sake!

Nope, we don't need to start up ANOTHER blue dog democrat caucus. Just got rid of the remnants of the last one!

[Traildogbob]

41. I hear you

We had a woman run as a Dem here in NC and switched on the day after being elected, on our dime, that gave NC GQP a supermajority.
And F Tulsi Gabbert too.
Hopefully all the non Nazi QPukes will just leave Moses Mike helpless and have to turn Speakership over.
I do however take issue with the cowards just running with pensions in tack and just say fuck the country I will be fine with tax funded retirement and health care.

[Grins]

28. Kinda' late. It's mid-March.

Primaries are finished or soon will. If they resign now who fills in for the election in Nov.? How pick a candidate?

God, this is so good!

[padah513]

32. i saw him giving an interview this morning.

He said he was the third ranking member on one of their committees, and they made him speak last. Was that at yesterday's hearing?

[Gaugamela]

33. If this happens, I would bet it's to avert another coup attempt. Recently Thom Hartmann

wrote a piece speculating that the Republicans will attempt to install Trump in January by challenging certain election results of any new Democratic representatives and thus retaining control of the House through January 6th, and then following it up by refusing to certify electors from enough states to throw the Presidential election to the House.

If these Republicans resign, I expect it's to deliberately hand the House to the Democrats in order to thwart this possibility. That said, I'll believe it when I see it.

[moreland01]

40. Thom Hartmann, gotta love him . . .

he's smoking the good stuff these days

[NanaCat]

44. Except

The House membership now will not be the same as that on 6 Jan 2025. They have to win every single seat they have now in November. And that's not a given. If the House achieves a Democratic majority (which has a far higher likelihood than them succeeding at a Congressional coup), all of their plotting and scheming would be for nought.

Even if they manage to hold onto the House with the same membership intact, that doesn't mean every r will vote for throwing the votes to Congress. All it takes is a few of them voting against it to kill any chances at a seditious coup. I know people don't want to believe it, but plenty of them objected last time. Plenty of them will do so again if they're re-elected.

This is one of those scenarios so unlikely (for now) that it's little more than the same kind of random speculation about what one would do if an alien race invades from Antares, or found a treasure chest stuffed with Spanish doubloons on a beach. Might be interesting to contemplate, but v unlikely to happen.

[Lunabell]

42. Dude's a conservative, but

he is definitely a patriot. We can disagree and be civil at the same time. Like it used to be...

[pfitz59]

45. I've been watching the Shogun series

Political seppuku seems the order of the day.

[BumRushDaShow]

46. I heard it was good

I loved the original with Richard Chamberlain. Have to put the new one on my (very long backlogged) watch list!

[ificandream]

47. I think his statement was more hypothetical than actual.

Still, we can dream, can't we?

[BumRushDaShow]

48. Once a (D) vacancy is filled I think in April

(D)s will have 214 members versus what should be 221 (R)s (that is currently down to 219 due to 2 vacancies, and will be 218 once Buck goes).

If 3 more (R)s went before any of the "late" special elections happen to fill the current 2 (R) vacancies (figuring any additional resignations would have even later special elections), they would briefly be down to 215 (R) - 214 (D).

The fact that he was so specific about the number (3), is probably why the article got written.

[BlueKota]

50. It would be interesting to know if they're being forced out to make room

for more loyal Trumpers to run in their place or the ones leaving are just sick of dancing to Trumps and his whacko followers tune?

[BumRushDaShow]

51. I don't think they are being "forced out" per se

although I expect the loons are harassing them for being "RINOs" (or "worse" from their perspective, meaning "socialists", etc). And of course there are the death threats and doxxing that can happen from that crowd, so they are bailing before it gets to that point (if it hasn't gotten that far yet).

Because they are "individualists", they probably also had their own agendas that they wanted addressed through legislation and that was being hijacked by the MTGs and Gaetz's with poison pill "other things".

[BlueKota]

52. That does make sense especially about them

being individualistic. You think at least some more of them would be more concerned about their own political ambitions, rather than just being a dancing puppet for a lunatic.

[BumRushDaShow]

54. As much as they "talk a maverick game"

very few of them are willing to be a Ken Buck or even a Lynn Cheney and prefer to act with the "herd" (safety in numbers). So if they do decide to go, they would probably try to do it in little "groups".

[Hermit-The-Prog]

60. I wonder if the 3 are hypothetical -- a warning based on that calculation.

[BumRushDaShow]

61. Well one of hypothetical "3" just announced today!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143213832

[calimary]

58. "...his party's already wafer thin majority in the chamber."

That's pretty thin, gotta say. Barely hanging on to a "majority", is about the size of it.