House Speaker Election "Post Mortem"
The three-week dysfunction junction that was the House of Representatives wasn't all the Republican's fault. The "Problem Solvers" Caucus could have prevented it, but they're a joke.
First, congratulations to new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), the 51-year-old Constitutional attorney, husband, and father of four who likely did not envision himself as second in the line of succession to the Presidency today.
And by all accounts, he’s off to a terrific start. Johnson delivered a pitch-perfect acceptance speech after winning 220 unanimous House Republican votes (there are two vacancies, one in Utah and another, freshmen Rep. Derrick Van Orden [R-WI], who is near the front lines in Israel, phoning in to make clear his support for Johnson).
Johnson wasted no time outlining an aggressive plan for appropriators to finish their jobs before a November 17th expiration of a “continuing resolution” that narrowly averted a government shutdown on October 1st but contributed to then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy losing his job for all the wrong reasons.
Democrats also wasted no time demonizing the mild-mannered, affable, self-deprecating, genuinely humble, and deeply faithful Johnson.
Starting with attacks on his Christian faith.
From LifeNews.com: “‘Speaker Mike Johnson in ‘Covenant Marriage, Harder to Get Divorced.’ That was the headline of the story written by Business Insider reporter Bryan Metzger. It went over so well with Yahoo that it featured the story on the front page of its website.”
Easy divorces are a boon to healthy families, well-adjusted children, and societies, said no person with an IQ over 50.
Then, there’s the whole stupid “election denier” moniker. Johnson wrote an amicus brief (“friend of the court”) for the Supreme Court in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a suit filed by 14 Attorneys General over violations of the Constitution and state laws on election methods in six states. The Supreme Court never took it up.
Those hurling “election denier” accusations, including third-ranking House Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar (D-NY) - “House Democrats believe that when members of this body voted to reject the results of the 2020 election they forfeited their ability to lead this chamber” - make me laugh. They should read Johnson’s detailed and well-documented brief. And this:
Johnson is smart enough, unlike Donald Trump, not to jump on the grievance train and instead focus on the job at hand, letting his work tell the story. That’s wisdom at work; he seems to have plenty of it. Even one of CNN’s resident partisans, Gloria Borger, noted that it might be hard to demonize the new Speaker:
Speaker Johnson has a rough road ahead, and that’s just within his GOP Conference. Fortunately, he’s built up so much goodwill and connects well with conservatives that he’s far more trusted than McCarthy. He’ll be able to pull things off in the short term in ways that McCarthy was never afforded.
What does this three-week debacle tell us about the shape of things in Congress and our government writ large? Will Republicans recover from this and allow eyes and minds to focus on real issues, from inflation to incompetence and corruption in the White House?
We have a president engaged in a criminal enterprise, and the media seems more worried about Speaker Johnson’s “covenant marriage.” Really?
As much as I am thrilled with Speaker Johnson, we didn’t have to arrive at this point. The fact remains that McCarthy and Republicans allowed to stand a terrible rule that allowed one member - the execrable Matt Gaetz (R-FL) - to propose to “vacate the chair,” a privileged motion, with only eight GOP votes but conspiring with 208 Democrats to put themselves into this predicament amidst an international crisis and a critical time of congressional activity (budget and appropriations). While vapid media and analysts ignore it, it is worth careful consideration.
Well-meaning but ignorant people who bought Gaetz’s snake oil prove PT Barnum correct: A sucker is born every minute.
And wow, is he still peddling it. He appeared on fellow-grifter Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast and bragged how his brilliant chess moves resulted in victory. It's pure conjecture and not worth linking here. Look for it yourself if you want to pollute your mind. While my faith informs me that no one is irredeemable, Gaetz is a bad man.
If we had Democrats and Republicans more concerned with the House as an institution, McCarthy would never have been vacated. US Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), a “moderate” Republican from suburban Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is co-chair of the so-called “Problem Solvers Congress.” Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka recently interviewed him on their superb “What The Hell is Going On” podcast (you should subscribe - it’s free):
“Danielle, there were members of the Democrat Conference that told Kevin McCarthy personally, told many of us personally and my colleagues that they would never do this, that they would never side with any extreme members of the Republican Conference to punish the speaker for doing something that they themselves agreed he should do. And they went back on that.”
So, where were Fitzpatrick’s fellow members of the so-called “Problem Solvers Caucus?” Where was his Democratic co-chair, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ)? Where was Jared Golden (D-ME)? Where was Jim Costa (D-CA) or even the pro-life Henry Cuellar (D-TX)? They were more interested in doing their party’s partisan bidding than the right thing. Power is an aphrodisiac as lethal as fentanyl, politically speaking.
These members - Gottheimer, Golden, Costa, Cuellar, and others - had a chance to prove their mettle. And their spines went AWOL.
These are not serious people. The “Problem Solvers Caucus” is a fraud. At a minimum, they failed their first real test. It’s hard to take them seriously after this.
Partisan Democrats have an obvious retort: why should they have bailed out Republicans? They miss the point. This was about what was best for the House, the Congress, and the nation. Sometimes, partisan gain needs to discover the water’s edge.
Hypocrite Hakeem Jeffries failed. He could have stood up to the worst elements of this caucus and said the country comes first. He caved. His party, his dreams of power, come first. That’s how it rolls with most congressional Democrats, it seems. It might explain why he defends his pro-Hamas caucus members after the brutal monstrosity of Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7th, given how 14 caucus members - including the infamous pro-Hamas “Squad” - refused to support a simple resolution supporting Israel. In fairness, one Republican, the iconoclastic Tom Massie (R-KY) weirdly voted no.
It wasn’t always that way. But those days are sadly gone.
Speaker Johnson and his new, civil style - as a freshman, he authored a “Commitment to Civility” signed by many of his colleagues on a bipartisan basis - may rule the day. Don’t laugh too hard when seeing that the smarmy Matt Gaetz signed it.
Americans certainly crave this leadership. His patience and mettle will be tested daily, and his counterpart, Jeffries, is part of the problem and will fight him at every step.
Pray for Speaker Mike Johnson. He was chosen - ordained, as he said - for this time. May God protect and guide him at a critical time in our nation’s history.
Short term, the DNC media always win. Again, if we get a turn for the better on the budget out of all this, those polls will flip, dramatically. Now. that's a big if, and I make no predictions. (Predicting the future is a lot trickier than predicting the past, as any stock trader knows...!) So, it's a gamble, but making progress usually requires that. When you get losing hand after losing hand, a gamble outside the norm is justified, instead of continuing the guaranteed losses.
We'll see how it plays out. PS -- I was thinking of 95-96. And you're right, no amount of explaining changed the false narrative. But times have changed. Back then people generally did not despise government as a strong consensus does now; there is a prevailing sense that something has to give.
Well, I won't disagree that McCarthy gave the Gaetz crowd almost everything they said they wanted, and they should have grabbed it and declared victory. Nor was McCarthy wrong to respond with a CR while they worked out a different agreement if he wanted to avoid a "shutdown"; at that point he had no choice.
In the longer run, though, our dysfunctional budget process had to be reformed. This might be the catalyst, and if so, it was all to the good. Too soon to know.
The whole fear of a "shutdown", however, is manufactured panic mode. It means 87% of government still continues, including transfer payments. Only "non-essential" employees are sent home, but they will still collect back pay when they return. Is there any other business that operates like that? And if they're not essential why should they return? If it were up to me, I'd risk that sort of "shutdown". The pattern of always blaming Republicans, regardless of whether they're in the executive or legislative branch, has to be broken -- and this would have been an ideal opportunity to educate voters on the unsustainability of a budget process that extends our current spending spiral.
I'm still not convinced the Rs lost support over this, and they may have gained. People on all sides of politics are deeply unhappy with government and both parties. Business as usual is a vote killer. Here was a contrary move. Again, if that results in a budget of specific appropriations, as opposed to an omnibus passed without anyone reading it, it will be a net plus.
Btw -- my views on this budget process are not formed by any "spin" from any crowd -- these thoughts are consistent with (though on specifics not identical to) my views ever since the Clinton years. Nor am I blind to contrary views, like yours. On balance, here is where I come down. And the specifics may change with time and circumstance. If this proves to be a disaster for the country, I will admit I was wrong.