“Hapless nitwit”

| 3:00 pm EDT March 13, 2024
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Just about every month, Republicans in the House dangle another shutdown over our heads, with the far-right caucus holding that party hostage, and threatening to cause the troubles that could make it very difficult for their slim majority to survive an election year.

Despite the hype of turning Speaker Mike Johnson into a new supervillain, he’s largely been the hapless nitwit everyone saw during last week’s State of the Union: powerless and largely uncomfortable with his role over a very divided Republican Party that has no idea how to get what it wants. What Johnson does know is that if he tries to make the far right Freedom Caucus happy, he’ll alienate much of the country already upset about the lack of aid to Israel and Ukraine, and if he does proceed with it, he could easily lose his job.

Fortunately, for him, Democrats are offering a way out – but not one that will be for free. Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries suggests that if Mike Johnson agrees to stand up against the pro-Putin Republicans in his party – the ones who take their marching orders from Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, he will allow Democrats to vote their conscience on a motion to vacate, and while not endorsing Johnson, a few of them would likely vote to keep him around as speaker for another few months in exchange for passing the relief that needs to be passed immediately. We’ll see what happens, but this is a clear reason why we need to flip the House on Nov 5 and get someone as steady and smart as Hakeem Jeffries as House Speaker.