Jim Jordan loses 2nd vote for speaker of the house as gov. shutdown looms

(ASSOCIATED PRESS) Republican Rep. Jim Jordan failed again Wednesday on a crucial second ballot to become House speaker, the hard-fighting ally of Donald Trump losing even more GOP colleagues who are refusing to give him the gavel.

Next steps were highly uncertain as angry, frustrated Republicans looked at other options. A bipartisan group of lawmakers floated an extraordinary plan — to give the interim speaker-pro-tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., more power to reopen the immobilized House and temporarily conduct routine business.

What was clear was that Jordan's path to become House speaker was almost certainly lost. He was opposed by 22 Republicans, two more than he lost in first round voting the day before.

“We picked up some today, a couple dropped off," said Jordan, a founding member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, after the vote, vowing to stay in the race. "We’ll keep talking to members, keep working on it.”

The House came to another abrupt standstill, stuck now 15 days without a speaker, a position of power second in line to the presidency, since the sudden ouster of Kevin McCarthy. Republicans are upset and exhausted by the infighting, the vote for House speaker once a formality in Congress having devolved into another bitter showdown for the gavel.

Ahead of the morning vote, Jordan, the combative Judiciary Committee chairman, made an unusual plea for party unity.

“We’ve been at this two weeks,” Jordan said at the Capitol, almost daring his colleagues to put forward the alternative proposal. “American people deserve to have their government functioning."