Wrestling Speakers October 5, 2023October 5, 2023 As you’ve seen, former assistant wrestling coach Jim Jordan — credibly accused of ignoring sexual abuse of his young college wrestlers — has thrown his hat into the race for Speaker of the House . . . a spot previously held longer than any other Republican Speaker by former high school wrestling coach and convicted abuser Dennis Hastert. (And then there’s fake-wrestling Hall of Famer, rapist and head of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, whom some are seriously considering voting in as Speaker.) That’s pretty much all I have to say today. Except that the “Hastert Rule” is what killed bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform in 2013; reform that could have forestalled at least some of today’s immigration problem. It had passed the Senate 68-32. It had majority support in the House. The President was eager to sign it. Coach Hastert had already left Congress (and not yet entered prison), but the Hastert Rule prevailed, as it does to this day. Under that rule, a bill cannot be brought up for a vote unless a majority of the Speaker’s party want it to pass. So today, if 213 Democrats and 110 Republicans favored something — 323 of the 435 Members, which works out to 74% — that would be insufficient.