OPINION:
Thanksgiving has ended and, four weeks after Election Day, America still does not know the makeup of the incoming House of Representatives.
Pathetic.
As of 11:22 p.m. Tuesday, The Associated Press reported that Republicans had won 219 seats to the Democrats’ 213. At this writing, three seats remain uncalled:
• Democrat Adam Gray inched past Republican Rep. John Duarte by 182 votes in California’s 13th District, with 99% of ballots tallied. (For God’s sake, after 22 days, where the hell are those other votes?) Mr. Duarte led Mr. Gray by 207 votes as late as Tuesday afternoon, with 98% of ballots counted. Another 1% of votes turned up, and — bang, zoom! — the Democrat is suddenly on top. Here we go again.
• In California’s 45th District, Democrat Derek Tran is 613 votes ahead of GOP Rep. Michelle Steel.
• Iowa’s 1st District finds Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks edging Democrat Christina Bohannan by 800 votes.
If these margins hold, the new House should include 215 Democrats, 220 Republicans and a three-seat GOP majority.
But wait.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, just ditched his seat after abandoning his nomination for attorney general. Fellow Floridian Mike Waltz left the House to become President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser.
These exits have triggered the Jan. 28 primaries and April 1 general elections.
These vacancies shrink the expected Republican conference to 218 seats.
It gets worse: Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican, is Mr. Trump’s choice for U.N. ambassador. Assuming a quick Senate confirmation, she would leave the House and commence diplomacy on Jan. 21.
GOP seats: 217.
Kathy “The Hack” Hochul — New York’s hapless, colorless Democratic governor — is in no rush to comfort Republicans. She likely will maximize GOP anxiety by scheduling the latest possible special election 90 days hence: Tuesday, April 22.
If everything goes smoothly, the Republican House must govern between Inauguration Day and April Fools’ Day with 217 seats and three vacancies. If all 214 Democrats stay united, as does the GOP, Republicans can afford no more than one defection, lest they drop beneath the 217 votes needed to pass anything.
This will turn every decision — from adopting budgets to approving each day’s Congressional Record — into a Hitchcockian thriller. If just two Republicans oversleep, get sick or endure flight delays, major legislation could crash and burn.
Any one or two Republicans could also hijack the entire House until securing whatever ransom buys their cooperation.
Republicans could also squander “safe” special elections. For a cautionary tale, recall how Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, left Congress in 2017 to become Mr. Trump’s first attorney general. His seat, in a stalwart Republican state, was a lock. And then hints and allegations emerged about GOP nominee Roy Moore’s habit of courting girls as young as 14.
“I don’t remember ever dating any girl without the permission of her mother,” Mr. Moore assured Fox News host Sean Hannity. Suitably appalled voters sent liberal Democrat Doug Jones to the Senate — from Alabama.
History could repeat itself in any of these normally reliable GOP seats.
Yet another hazard light flashes: House Speaker Mike Johnson’s surprisingly weak leadership has earned the scorn of GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Add their nays to Mr. Gaetz’s and Mr. Waltz’s absences, and the Louisiana Republican could lack the votes to regain the speakership. If so, the House will drift like a ghost ship for days or even weeks until a new captain arises. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s America First legislative agenda would bob aimlessly among the waves.
This sliver of hope might help: Mr. Gaetz should change his mind and take the seat that he defended, 66% to 34%, over Democrat Gay Valimont. Mr. Gaetz should then chair a new Special Committee on Federal Injustice. It would detail the Department of Justice’s violations of the Constitution, federal law and DOJ regulations. These would include FBI spying on Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, the FBI’s lies to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Russia hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop cover-up, alleged FBI inducement of Jan. 6 violence, federal arm-twisting of Big Tech to censor and deplatform citizens, surveillance of conservative Catholics and designation of parental rights activists as domestic terrorists.
While Mr. Gaetz won’t cleanse DOJ’s Augean stable internally, he could present Attorney General Pam Bondi the facts, dates and most importantly names of the perpetrators behind these abuses. Ms. Bondi should dismiss and, where appropriate, prosecute these tyrants. This Florida Republican pincer movement would reinvigorate the constitutional and civil rights that DOJ and the FBI have battered since Mr. Trump descended the golden escalator.
Thus, by one seat, Mr. Gaetz could mitigate the fine mess left by Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina and the National Republican Congressional Committee. They should have secured a victory commensurate with Mr. Trump’s win and Senate Republicans’ 100% reelection of incumbents and conquest of four Democratic seats.
Mr. Hudson and the NRCC failed Mr. Trump and Republicans nationwide by botching an excellent opportunity to win a robust working House majority. Mr. Trump and Senate Republicans romped. Mr. Hudson and the NRCC barely survived. Forthcoming details of their incompetence and pettiness will expose them as this Thanksgiving’s biggest turkeys.
• Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor.
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