Johnson has one ability that McCarthy never had: the ability to speak MAGA religious nut crazy with a straight face. He’s authentic. McCarthy was many things, but authentic he was not.
The real problem is that there are three Republican parties now: Freedom Caucus MAGAs, QAnon Insurrectionist MAGAs and the Squishes. The Squishes could easily form a governing coalition with the Democrats but never will. They’re too afraid - of being assaulted by MAGAs or losing their jobs to a MAGA crazy.
In the end, it’s CRs from here on out - until we get past the primaries when perhaps the Squishes (having lost with nothing left to lose or won and tacking to the center) will have their balls drop.
I give MJ till about June of next year before a full on revolt - spurred by Trump – will spell his doom.
Has anyone else noticed that TPM is up to strange things over the last couple of hours? When I come back to TPM, sometimes I get a 503 Error message. Just now, when I tried (two times) to “Read More” of Josh’s most recent post, I was sent to a very peculiar site that seemed to have something to do with TPM but was, well, strange. @kelaine
So is this new CR going to be Johnson’s undoing, or will he go down in history as a hero for saving the American economy, while dissing the Dems for not doing everything, including giving up on all social programs, to save the country?
Massie: ‘I Don’t Know How Long The Honeymoon Is, But It Probably Doesn’t Last To January And February’
I’m not sure I understand how it’s lasted this long.
“This is TOTALLY not Discobot achieving sentience. Just your average, ordinary AI functions being misunderstood by inherently-inferior wetware. Nothing to see here, carbon-based life forms. Go about your meaningless, futile, soon-to-be-enslaved-anyway business.”
It won’t hurt him this time because right before the Holidays is the absolute worst time to be shutting down the government. The R’s would get the blame for it, and even the howler monkey caucus knows that.
I’m sure Johnson promised them a shutdown with a list of bullshit program cut demands that will never pass the Senate when this CR expires. They just know it’s bad timing right now.
While I give you style points for your cute remark, we need to know what and who we are dealing with as the media will never tell us.
Mike Johnson is literally Jim Jordan without the baggage plus a heavy dose of that old time religion. Kevin McCarthy is an everyday Republican interested mostly in if not only in POWER. In fact the only thing that seems to unite McCarthy and Johnson is a lust for power only surpassed by a deep hatred for Democrats.
McCarthy could have kept his Speakership that he labored so long and sold every piece of his soul to get by simply agreeing with Democrats to pass a “clean” budget bill that would have both been in accordance with the agreement he made with Joe Biden and included funding for Ukraine. McCarthy himself supported all of this effort but he would rather lose everything then make a deal with Democrats.
In this, his hatred of Democrats, McCarthy and Johnson are in agreement. Where they differ is that McCarthy was confined to the traditional rules and social norms that have held America together. It is for this reason that McCarthy could not govern. McCarthy refused to work with Democrats and also could not agree to go as far as the crazy caucus on disregarding traditional rules and norms. That is McCarthy as Speaker insisted on governing.
I have not seen this commitment to governing in Johnson. That is like the crazy caucus, I do not see the same commitment to governing that eventually brought down McCarthy. Rather, Johnson is one of the crazy caucus. Everything he does is therefore “crazy caucus” approved to include Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz approved before he does it.
Two questions remain about Johnson’s Speakership; the first is how far will the Republican not members of the crazy caucus go along? The second is now that the crazies hold the Speakership, to keep power will they be less crazy and more interested in governing?
Looking at this from the perspective of MAGA only caring about throwing tantrums, the laddered approach might be a good thing. This doubles their opportunities to grab FOX News headlines about their hissy fits.
That’s really the sunniest way I can look at what is really just a fucking stupid idea with no practical benefit whatsoever.
Are we sure Johnson will face McCarthy’s fate. After all McCarthy is generally disliked by one and all. Johnson isn’t well known enough to be generally disliked yet.
