It must really suck to be Speaker Mike Johnson. Not that I feel the least bit sorry for him. Earlier I wrote about his face-plant in calling for a floor vote on impeaching DHS Secretary Mayorkas – and NOT having the votes. I saw a bit of online joking about the way he banged the gavel suggesting anger. Or maybe frustration. Or maybe embarrassment. Perhaps a combination of those. Well, little Mikey wasn’t done with humiliating himself and proving just how out of his depth he is. He turned around a minutes later called up a vote on an aid package for Israel. A “stand-alone”, screw Ukraine and also the border bill that only provided money for Israel. And he LOST that too!
Johnson had to do some fancy parliamentary maneuvering to even get his bill to the floor, which as this article from the AP points out required a two-thirds majority for passage. Once again, Johnson either failed to do a careful vote count or simply couldn’t count. Or perhaps do arithmetic to calculate what number two-thirds was. Whatever. Even with 46 Democrats voting for his bill he was well short of what he needed! From the linked article:
Johnson resorted to moving the bill through an expedited process that requires a two-thirds majority for passage. That’s because Republicans were unlikely to even muster the simple majority needed to set the terms for the bill’s debate. Such a procedural vote is generally a routine matter, but has become problematic for the current Republican majority, which can generally afford to lose only three Republicans on party-line votes. The vote for more Israel aid was 250-180, well short of the two-thirds threshold necessary for passage.
Fourteen Republicans ended up voting against the bill, concerned about the lack of spending cuts to offset the $17.6 billion price tag. That compares to 204 Republicans who voted for it. On the Democratic side, 46 voted for it and 166 against.
Johnson might have wound up inflicting less pain on himself if he’d brought a double barrel shotgun to work today and blasted a dose of rock salt into each foot.
Again, I don’t feel the least bit sorry for the guy. I’ll also say once upon a time I was a pretty good athlete, better than average in fact. I grew up admiring certain sports icons who competed fiercely but also displayed great sportsmanship. Win or lose they were gracious. And they competed fairly. Play hard, even rough sometimes but there was a line you didn’t cross. Playing dirty was a no-no. Well, that’s yet another aspect of the old me that’s gone, or at least no longer prevalent. Now, when someone like Johnson is down I’ll not only kick them, but enjoy doing so. The prick deserves it.
More importantly I think we should keep a close eye out. We still have budget bills that have to get passed and soon or the govt. shuts down. That’s a disaster that, much as some in his caucus might want and even Trump wants he might not want to let happen. I’m betting that as the dust settled in the hours after those two votes plenty in the House GOP started wondering if it was time for a new Speaker. If Johnson has a lick of sense (now THERE’S a question!) he’s got to know the knives are coming out.
I predict he’s toast no matter what. That means the question is how he wants to go out? He’s not going to be remembered kindly in any historical accounting of House Speakers. Might he want to salvage a bit of his legacy by, one the way out sitting down with Jeffries and cutting a deal to fund the govt. through to the next Congress convening? I don’t know and I don’t want to guess. But it’s something you should think about. Johnson is mortally wounded as Speaker. From self-inflicted wounds. It’s hard to say how he reacts to his impending political demise.
I have posted this before, but as a reminder, Nancy never brought a bill to the floor that she knew would not pass. As much as the squad or whoever complained about a bill, Nancy knew how to get the votes. johnson is a child. he doesn’t even know what he is doing. he is embarrassed at every vote. who the fu(k is his whip counter? He should know every vote before it is cast. You know who knows how to count votes, Hakeem Jeffries. He has his caucus in control, waiting for johnson to fail.
When the only tool you have is a Gavel, every, say, vote, starts to look like an inviting nail that needs to be whacked. The sole aim, in Mr Short-Term Speaker’s case, is to promote and secure some face saving semblance of political credibility. Doesn’t work, does it Mr S-T Speaker. Said whacking simply results in an amateurish face plant, straight into the stink pickle of own doing – simply a self-destructive waste of both time and resources.
Hey speaker…since you have ‘God’ up your ass…why not pull that sob out and see if that hypocrite can find you some votes. Oh…and see if that racist can find your so called adopted black son that no one can find. Otherwise find that rolling doughnut and take a flying phuck!
The house speaker job must be one of the worst jobs in the u.s. when you don’t know what you’re doing. Speaker Pelosi always made it look not fun exactly but doable always. Not many folks like Speaker Pelosi who has politics running through her body instead of blood. lol