Yes, Speaker Johnson is having a tough time in the House. There’s so much going on that it’s a massive mess, and he’s seemingly not holding up very well. We already knew he’s a milquetoast, but this would make even a strong leader crazy. Scandals. Major scandals. He should be handling them. But. My regards to Raw Story:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is avoiding his “basic duties” as he navigates a wave of lawmaker scandals, David Graham wrote for The Atlantic. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly, Graham noted, than Johnson’s explanation for why his leadership pushed out Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) following an Ethics Committee report of his serial harassment of female staffers, but is staying out of the horrific domestic abuse allegations sinking Rep. Max Miller (R-OH).
What’s wrong with this picture? Serial harassment is bad, but domestic abuse is okay? It doesn’t make any sense. Johnson should be pushing out Miller, too. We could consider this the nastier of the allegations. Maybe Johnson wants the Ethics Committee to do something so he can slack. There’s no telling what is going through Johnson’s head, but you can be sure Chuck Edwards is mightily pissed off with treatment that seems prejudiced towards him but not Miller. That is some nonsense. Johnson should have to answer to that. But.
“There’s all sorts of domestic events going on with 435 members of Congress all the time. It’s not my business to get engaged in it,” said Johnson. “This raises the question of what Johnson does think the speaker’s business is,” said Graham. “One might imagine that the Miller situation would concern Johnson for several reasons. Johnson positions himself as a staunch social conservative and defender of morality; Miller has been accused of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and toddler daughter, and of illegal drug use.”
Meanwhile, said Graham, the whole episode is “a big distraction from any midterm messaging that the Republican Party might wish to do in the last 100 days before elections” and if Miller refuses to allow the Ohio GOP to replace him on the ballot, it takes a generally safe Republican seat and makes it genuinely competitive.
Well, that’s good news for us because we’ll have a chance at flipping a seat, but that’s one heckuva thing for Miller as an opponent. Do you use it, or do you step back and simply promote yourself instead of stooping down low? It seems that ignoring it is the better thing to do. But there’s still the question of what’s going on with Johnson. Why is he not pressuring Miller to drop out? He should be, after pushing Chuck Edwards out. But it’s not his business to get engaged in it? What huh? Then yes, what is his business?
“If Johnson doesn’t think that his job includes protecting the moral reputation of the House, his small and endangered House majority, or the prospects of the Republican Party more broadly, he must have some other idea about his role,” wrote Graham. “What that might be is mysterious,” he added, since Johnson’s caucus has also passed historically low quantities of legislation. Miller, for his part, has requested his own Ethics Committee probe this week in what critics call a stalling tactic, and has denied the abuse allegations while admitting past illegal drug use, though he says he’s since stopped. He also claimed on CNN that “Speaker Mike Johnson, everyone else — they’re standing behind me.”
They are? Really? If so, why hasn’t anyone come out in support of him? Because we hear crickets. Very smol crickets. So small that we’re not even sure they’re there. Johnson certainly dodged the question. If Miller doesn’t step down, Republicans will have to spend a great deal of money that could be used elsewhere, in, say, battleground states? They’re also going to have to spend a lot in Texas. Sorry not sorry. You picked them, Republican folks.
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