Jim Jordan will have to break MAGA hearts by telling them their 'dream agenda is dead on arrival': analysis

With Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) becoming the first House speaker in American history to be ousted mid-Congress as a small group of GOP hardliners demand extreme cuts and hold government funding hostage, the party must pick a new speaker to get out of this chaos — and former President Donald Trump is pushing the party to back House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) for speaker.

But this is not going to do much to improve the GOP's ability to function, wrote Heather Digby Parton for Salon.

That's because Jordan has no more ability than McCarthy to navigate the hostage-takers' demands to keep the government open.

"House Republicans have a long wish list of extreme policies they want to pass in this new budget and nobody seems to have told them that they don't have a majority in the Senate nor do they have the White House, which means that their dream agenda is dead on arrival anyway," wrote Parton. Among their demands are "radical cuts in spending, process changes that are unconstitutional and a total reversal of American foreign policy, and they seem determined to hold their breath until they blow up the country if they don't get their way."

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"There's little reason to believe that Trump's endorsee Jim Jordan will be able to deal with this insoluble problem any better than McCarthy did and even less reason to believe he wants to," warned Parton. "He may not have joined the rebels in this instance but he's just as extreme as they are."

Jordan, who is current leading the effort to impeach President Joe Biden despite their own witnesses not providing any evidence supporting it, has already made clear funding for Ukraine, which is still supported by even a majority of his own party caucus, is on the chopping block if he becomes speaker.

Another top contender for speaker is Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), currently the House Majority Leader.