San Francisco Frontiers - Republicans nominate Scalise for US House speaker

The party has been in a tailspin since a handful of hardliners forced out Kevin McCarthy eight days ago, leaving the Republican-controlled lower chamber of Congress unable to respond to mounting international and domestic challenges.

Scalise, the majority leader in the House and McCarthy's longtime deputy, pipped firebrand Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan to the nomination by 113 votes to 99 in a secret ballot, multiple US media outlets reported.

The pair had looked evenly-matched, setting the stage for what could have been a grueling, drawn-out contest with several acrimonious rounds of voting.

But the path was cleared for Scalise, 58, after the defeat of a proposal to change the nominating threshold from a simple majority of the party's 221 House members to 217 -- the number needed to succeed in the full 433-member full House.

Some Republicans had argued for raising the nominating standard to ensure they do their fighting in private and are able present a united front when their nominee comes to the floor.

McCarthy's truncated term began in chaos and public bickering in January, as Republicans almost came to blows over 15 bitter rounds of voting that played out on national television.

A gregarious lawmaker seen as a bridge between the most hardline conservatives and the party's mainstream, Scalise has been in the leadership for almost a decade.

It remains to be seen whether all of the lawmakers who voted for 59-year-old Jordan will coalesce behind Scalise in the House vote, which could come as early as Wednesday afternoon.

But the victory marks a stunning turnaround just one month after Scalise returned to work following a blood cancer diagnosis for which he has been undergoing chemotherapy.

The Louisiana native underwent surgery five years ago for a gunshot wound to the hip in an attack at a baseball practice near Washington.

- 'Moral clarity' -

Jordan, a darling of the hard-right, went into Wednesday's contest with more endorsements than Scalise -- including the coveted backing of former president Donald Trump.

But while Scalise now has momentum, his ultimate victory in the full House remains unclear.

Colorado's Ken Buck, one of the rebels who ousted McCarthy, told reporters he had declined to vote for either potential replacement after asking them if the 2020 election was stolen and getting non-committal responses.

"If we don't have the moral clarity to decide whether President Biden won or not, we don't have the moral clarity to rule," said Buck, who joined a failed 2020 lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump's election defeat.

Texas lawmaker Troy Nehls told NBC he was unconvinced Republicans would unify behind any nominee, or that the loser would go quietly, while Colorado's Lauren Boebert and Ohio's Max Miller said they'd be voting for Jim Jordan on the House floor.

The drama has been playing out against the backdrop of an escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas militants who launched a deadly attack at the weekend, with a paralyzed Congress unable to authorize new emergency aid for the US ally.

Lawmakers have until November 17 to reauthorize federal spending levels and avert a damaging government shutdown.

R.Baker--SFF