Hey, Wait, So Mike Johnson's First Few Months As House Speaker Might've Been His Last Few Months?
Hey, Wait, So Mike Johnson's First Few Months As House Speaker Might've Been His Last Few Months?
LOL! We love to see him squirm.
Hell week is here for House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose demonstrated skills as a coup plotter and Christian fascist have proven insufficient to lead that pack of hyenas calling themselves Republicans.
“Are Johnson’s days numbered?” PunchBowl News breathlessly asked on Tuesday. “It’s too early to say that. But you should be aware that there are knives out for the speaker already.”
Mike Johnson has been speaker for a little more than two months, and most of that time was the holidays or the lead up to the holidays, so more like eight days. He’s now plummeting faster than the fuselage from a Boeing Max.
PunchBowl News founder Jake Sherman quotes a “well-connected” House Republican, who offers a less than enthusiastic performance review.
“Significant concerns growing about Mike’s ability to jump to this level and deliver conservative wins. Growing feeling that he’s in way, way over his head. As much as there was valid criticism and frustration with Kevin, Mike is struggling to grow into the job and is just getting rolled even more than McCarthy did.”
Apparently, the “conservative win” Johnson has failed to deliver is a needlessly destructive government shutdown over border security. Back in November, Johnson declared that he was “done” with stop-gap spending resolutions, but now with a partial shutdown less than two weeks away, Johnson is open to a short-term continuing resolution that will fund the federal agencies — the bare-ass minimum we ask of Congress — and kick the can down the road until the next pointless debacle.
Republicans have the narrowest of majorities and must rely on Democratic support to get anything done beyond sham impeachments. However, bipartisan solutions are seen as surrender by the far-right nihilist wing. Reese Gorman at the Washington Examiner reports that Freedom Caucus members believe that Johnson “sold them out” with the top-line spending agreement he negotiated with Senate leadership. (Democrats control the Senate, so compromise was inevitable — a fact that functioning adults would understand.)
The deal limits spending to what former Speaker Kevin McCarthy already agreed to in last June’s Fiscal Responsibility Act, which pissed off the obstinate, shutdown-horny Freedom Caucus.
Rep. Chip Roy complained this week that Johnson is now trying to sell the House Freedom Caucus a “bill of goods.”
“[They said,] ‘Just take the CR. Don’t worry. We’ll fight on the [National Defense Authorization Act]. And then they stick it to us on the NDAA,” Roy said. “They say, ‘You got to accept this FISA extension and watered down almost all of the riders in the NDAA, but don’t worry about it; we’ll fight on spending.’ Well, now we’re taking it on the chin on spending, and they’re saying, ‘Don’t worry. Trust us. We’ll fight on the border and Ukraine.’ Bullcrap.”
So, are Roy and his loons prepared to pull the trap door on Johnson?
“Let’s just say there’s a lot of conversations underway right now about our complete lack of confidence now and where the Republican leadership is,” Roy said. He also told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins that he and other “frustrated” colleagues had “real conversations this week about what [House Republicans] need to do going forward.” He described the emerging situation as “[not] good.” When Collins pressed him, Roy said he’d prefer not moving ousting Johnson as speaker but he also wasn’t ruling it out.
The other day, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk hit Johnson with complaints similar to those conservative pundits had about McCarthy: “Cut the crap, man! Okay! I know a fraud when I see one. Cut it out! You couldn’t broker a deal. You start shaking like a leaf when you get in a room with Chuck Schumer … Whatever they want, they get.”
Johnson won the Republican speaker booby prize because he was a hardline, coup-plotting, far-right radical, and while his equally terrible colleagues might happily subscribe to his newsletter, they are realizing he is no more capable than McCarthy, perhaps even less. It looks as if Johnson’s speakership might also prove absurdly short.
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"there are knives out for the speaker already.”
`
Maybe he'll quit to "spend more time with his family", if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
*waggles syebrows roguishly*
Perhaps it's time for the Democratic Caucus to flex its muscles. They torpedoed McCarthy because he reneged on his agreement with Biden. They aren't going to get any better than Johnson. With a united caucus, it would only take a few Republicans in swing districts who know their constituents don't like shutdowns and never blame the Democrats for them to stop an ouster and pass the spending bill.