New House Speaker Johnson Is Outwitting the White House and Senate

After the House of Representatives coup that pushed out Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republican caucus spent three weeks in near turmoil finding a new speaker.

A moderate group of Republicans promoted Steve Scalise who was seasoned, well-liked, and a disabled survivor of an attempted massacre of Republicans by an anti-Trump Democrat in 2017. But conservatives regarded him as McCarthy-light, a mainstream get-along, go-along Republican who would not take a hard line on deficits and spending priorities.

Scalise came up short of votes. The conservative champion was Jim Jordan, one of the leaders of the Freedom Caucus. Some of the same moderates who supported Scalise voted against Jordan, and he failed also.

Next came Tom Emmer from Minnesota who was the Republican Whip and third-ranking member of the Republican leadership in the House. Emmer withdrew before even trying for a vote. He had no support from conservatives.

Finally, the Republicans threw the race wide open and agreed to have a caucus with no time limit and just keep voting until somebody won. The surprise winner was Mike Johnson, a member from Louisiana who has only been in the House since 2017.

He seemed conservative enough for the Freedom Caucus and reserved enough for the moderates, so he got the job. But Johnson always had excellent credentials despite not being well-known. He’s a top-tier constitutional scholar and appellate lawyer who wrote briefs supporting those challenging voting irregularities in the 2020 presidential election.

I’ve always thought of the Democrats as the Ruthless Party because they’ll break any rules to keep power and they’re good at. I think of the Republicans as the Stupid Party because they espouse good policies but don’t have the fortitude to implement them and always fall for the Democrat’s tricks.

Johnson seems to be breaking the mold. He’s a conservative Republican who’s smart enough to paint the Democrats into a corner instead of the other way around.

Here’s a good example. The White House and Senate wanted to combine aid for Israel and for Ukraine in a single bill. Members who don’t support funding for Ukraine would have to vote for it or risk being called anti-Israel. Johnson turned the tables by separating Israel and Ukraine funding into two bills and letting members decide to vote to one or the other or both.

The Israel funding passed easily. The Ukraine funding comes next. It will likely pass, but with a much larger no vote. It also forces anti-Israeli members of Congress to vote “no” on aid to Israel without being able to hide behind Ukraine funding as a reason to vote yes.

The House bills are said to be dead on arrival in the Senate. That’s nice rhetoric, but the Senate will still have to deal with them separately or risk a stalemate and a government shutdown on November 17. Johnson looks like the leader we’ve been looking for – a smart Republican.

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