Speaker Johnson with Ukraine aid is doing the same sort of thing as Judge Cannon with Trump’s classified docs trial, creating delay after delay in service to an anti-American cause, but with just barely enough resemblance to normal procedure to thwart cut-the-BS-already counters. https://t.co/zHBV0EYoBZ
— Nicholas Grossman (@NGrossman81) April 5, 2024
It is a fact universally acknowledged that Pastor Mike Johnson couldn’t organize a drinkfest in a brewery, but it’s also becoming ever clearer that he was chosen as House Speaker by the GOP because he’s just that incompetent. And he knows it, the nasty little beetle! Which doesn’t mean he won’t whine about it, because whining is one of the last remaining Republican skills.
Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire — “It’s Apparently Dawning On Mike Johnson That No One Likes Him”:
Speaker Mike Johnson has a sad face these days. He’s beginning to realize that he’s in thrall to a pack of angry vandals in the service of an empty and unpopular shadow of an ideology. There’s no light. Hell, there’s no tunnel. There’s no escape for Speaker Moses, and God can’t help him because he can’t help himself…
If your sympathy for the speaker is anywhere from limited to infinitesimal, you needn’t feel guilty. He knew what he was walking into, and he knew the folks with whom he’d be dealing, and it wasn’t the Democratic majority…
Will Saletan, at the Bulwark, eviscerates “Mike Johnson’s Pathetic Apology Tour”:
MIKE JOHNSON, THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE, has embarked on an apology tour. For the past week, he’s been doing interviews on right-wing radio and TV, hoping to soothe conservatives who are angry at him for cutting deals with Democrats to keep the government open. Johnson is trying to explain why he hasn’t taken a harder line. His excuses say a lot about the sickness of the Republican base—and the cravenness of the speaker who’s contorting himself to appease it.
Here are some of the alibis Johnson is peddling.
1. We barely have a majority.
In every interview, Johnson points out that the GOP’s margin over House Democrats, which used to be nine seats, has dwindled in the last year. It will soon be down to one. With such a small margin, and with unreliable support from hardliners on the right, Johnson says he can’t get much done…2. I inherited a mess.
Three weeks ago, Johnson scolded President Joe Biden for using his State of the Union speech to blame America’s troubles on his “predecessor.” But on Monday, Johnson blamed his own troubles—in particular, his agreement to budget parameters opposed by many conservatives—on former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “I was hemmed in by the top-line spending numbers that my predecessor negotiated,” Johnson told radio talk-show host Moon Griffon. “I inherited all this. . . . They handed me the reins of this stagecoach going off the cliff.” This excuse, like the one about small margins, is an indictment of the party’s chaos and infighting…
Repub Venality Open Thread: Mike Johnson’s Malignant IncompentencePost + Comments (68)