According to Voteview, here's the skinny on Mike Johnson, our new Speaker of the House:
He's pretty conservative, but a little less conservative than Jim Jordan. According to their ideology rankings, he's the 82nd most conservative member of the House, compared to 9th for Marjorie Taylor-Greene and 20th for Jordan.
like saying squeaky was less crazy than manson
He is a solid trumpist, and that is the most significant parameter.
Deeper in coup plotting. The organizer to Jordan's ideas man.
Get him to start talking about abortion and he'll move up the ranks quickly. He's a religious nutbag of the highest order.
From my value set, Mike Johnson is more Trump like than Kevin McCarthy. Thus, I WISH the Democrats would have supported McCarthy. In the end, I believe, the US is worse off with Johnson than McCarthy.
You wouldn't have McCarthy as Speaker if Democrats voted for him, because the MAGA would have terrorized him out of it, if needed by physical volience.
But you would have the Republicans look much worse than they look now, which is the reason why Democrats should have done it.
Yehouda - perhaps you are correct.
Here is how I see it. On the McCarthy vote, I think the Democrats miss read the situation. Sure, short term, having the GOP appear as a public mess is good for the Democrats. However, as we see now, with the Republicans, the long term situation can always get worse.
I recall folks saying there would never be a worse president than W Bush....then Trump came along.
How does Johnson makes things worse for the Dems? Even if he passes crazier bills, they're just as dead as McCarthy's were going to be with the added benefit of showing how deranged the R's are.
ColBatGuano - we are in the world of speculation, but here goes.
- rumor has it, McCarthy had some type of deal with Biden on Ukraine aid. Who knows if this would have come to form, but this aid is now less likely with Johnson
- I THINK impeachment of Biden, because Johnson is closer to Trump, is more likely now.
- A government shutdown is also now more likely.
Basically, McCarthy was very bad and, I think, Johnson will be worse.
Your examples actually show why McCarthy was an irrelevancy. Yes, there was a rumored deal to allow a floor vote on Ukraine aid. But there was also a deal which we know about on the budget and keeping the federal government open which we also know that McCarthy did not honor. So there’s no reason to believe that he would have kept his word and allowed a Ukraine aid vote.
Hr also said that he wouldn’t allow the impeachment inquiry to go forward u less certain conditions were met (variously a vote and sometimes that the MAGA-nutters produce some evidence). But, when Matt Gaetz said jump, all McCarthy cared about was jumping high enough to make Matt happy. No reason to see McCarthy as some kind of moderating force.
McCarthy was ousted for making the "moderate" decision to fund the government.
We're going to find out whether a true believer is worse than a spineless turd, but I don't think it's going to be a big surprise.
He will do what he can to make things worse fo Democrats, and to help Trump get re-elected, mess things up so they can blame it on Biden, prevent help from Ukraine etc.
McCarthy was slightly more responsible, but not much better.
The ‘GOP appearing as a public mess’ is entirely the doing of Republicans; the Democrats are not responsible for keeping Republicans in line.
The fantasy that the House would have returned to regular order if only Democrats had kept McCarthy as Speaker is plain weird. There is no way Republicans would have accepted a House leader beholden to the minority party for his position. All it would have achieved was weeks of dysfunctional turmoil in the House until McCarthy was finally forced out, followed by the farce we've just witnessed.
Nice man in jacket and tie and horn rimmed glasses. Looks respectable but…. he wants to outlaw abortion (and probably contraception), undermine gay rights and do away with gay marriage, block aid for Ukraine and also promises to ask Putin to allow Trump to build his Moscow hotel.
This guy who was an active planner of the failed attempt to overthrow the results of the last presidential election. He is now second in line for the presidency. Furthermore if the Repubs again control the house in 2024 guess who will control the counting of the electoral college vote. Anyone think he will do the right thing the next time?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Speaker doesn't control the counting of the electoral votes: the vice president does.
He also may not be Speaker in January, 2025. Hopefully no Republican will be.
I would say that the man has better control of his tongue but I've recently seen some clips that will make this post sort of an embarrassment...
from,
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/mike-johnson-assets-debt-stock/
As per talkingpointsmemo.com Johnson and his wife have a podcast about ‘religious conservatism’, focusing on abortion bans, opposing gay marriage and the like. Episode 12 “The Truth about January 6th that You’ve Never Been Told”. That's gonna be a goldmine of terrible i'm sure.
Indeed, I too have been listening to the podcast. Johnson’s way more far right than almost anyone else in Congress, particularly in terms of religious “freedom” (E.g. Christian nationalism), abortion, birth control, gay marriage and he was deeply involved in Trump’s efforts to overthrow the government. If the Democrats were a normal political party, they’d crucify him and every other Republican in the house. As it is, I’m sure they’ll give him as pass because they’re the “adults in the room “.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/speaker-johnson
I don't really blame dems. It's his own caucus and voter base who need to reject this kind of extremism. As things stand in our political system, dem attacks on him (which I think should come hard and fast) are likely to have little to no impact. But we sure as hell should try.
I blame the Democrats for consistently giving Republicans a pass on their radical agenda and crazy things that they say. Sometimes it’s like they are so committed to the beltway version of “bipartisanship” that they stop being a political party.
I agree that Democratic attacks aren’t going to change the minds of any hardcore MAGA-nutters but, as we’ve seen in the last two midterms, when Democrats stand up for themselves and their policies they can sway a lot of independents and more reasonable conservatives.
Johnson is a right wing religious fanatic and he’s an election denier/strong ally of Donald Trump. His positions are anathema to the majority of Americans. The Republican Party should be made to pay for elevating him and endorsing his policies.
yeah, i'm all for dems calling out gop extremism way more directly and realizing there is no path for bipartisanship with the current party. We need to play hardball in the press and on capitol hill. I think they are getting better though.
They just spent 3 weeks saying "fuck bipartisanship, roll around in your own shit" to republicans.
Oh good, now we'll have someone who will honor the deal the Republicans struck with the White House earlier this year.
You forgot the "/snark" tag
oops....
😉
A senetnce containing "honor" and "Republicans" is obviously sarcasm, so doesn't need a tag.
I get that Johnson is an upright, religious person who does his best to live up to the moral and ethical precepts of the Baptist version of the Christian faith. However, like the vast majority of Baptists, he did not get the memo from Jesus about not throwing stones. Instead he has spent his religious life reading the Old Testament and the letters of Paul.
Paul is the world's pre-eminent scold and up in everyone's grill about lifestyle both before AND AFTER that thing on the Damascus road. You would not have seen Paul befriending and defending a "fallen woman", though he was probably a great friend of the tax collectors.
Better Paul than John of Patmos - but not by very much!
What a silly scale. They all suck.
Looking for any benefit over McCarthy. Perhaps more likely to fund the Ukraine war effort?
McCarthy's whining RW/MAGA propaganda was annoying. I wonder if this guy will be even more annoying. My guess is yes.
"Looking for any benefit over McCarthy. Perhaps more likely to fund the Ukraine war effort?"
I think the reverse. He already voted against it, and he is a solid Trumpist.
Politico's email newsletter has some nuggets about Johnson from the podcast he does with his wife:
The second claim seems to undermine the 1st amendment, while also demonstrating astonishing ignorance of the existence of various Islamic republics around the world, not to mention the Jewish state of Israel.
I suspect we're going to be reading plenty of "gosh I never knew he was like this" comments in future from so-called "moderates" desperate to distance themselves from Johnson's Christianist bigotry.
Not that it's important in the great scheme of things, but did Marge authorize you to stick that hyphen in there? in any case, I see no reason to have to use first, middle, & last names of "important" women, such as Greene & Barrett.
he's a hardcore christianist. a religious fanatical traitor as 2nd in line president is not reassuring.