As members of Congress prepared to take a two-week break, House Speaker Mike Johnson hoped to tackle some priorities on his to-do list. First up was a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which intelligence officials consider a critical surveillance tool. The Louisiana Republican supported the measure, and he thought he might have the support to get it through the chamber.
He thought wrong. Facing a backlash from his own GOP members, Johnson was forced to pull the bill.
Around the same time, Johnson tried to advance a modest tweak to the cap on the state and local tax deductions (better known as the SALT issue). GOP leaders again thought they had a chance to succeed, and again failed on a procedural vote. (Up until very recently, a House majority conference hadn’t lost a vote on “adopting a rule” in decades — a New York Times report called it “all but unthinkable” — but now, it’s becoming rather common: It’s now happened six times over the last year.)
A Punchbowl News report concluded, “This is the most chaotic, inefficient and ineffective majority we’ve seen in decades covering Congress.”
To be sure, these problems are not entirely new. A month ago, Punchbowl News spoke to a “well-plugged-in House Republican,” who is not a Freedom Caucus member, who said a growing number of GOP members have “significant concerns” about the House speaker. The unnamed Republican lawmaker added that there was a “growing feeling” that Johnson was in “way, way over his head.”
That was before the House GOP leadership’s debacles from last week, followed by another round of fiascoes this week.
As the House Republican conference unravels, it’s reached the point at which Politico reported that some are starting to long for the days of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s miserable tenure.
For nine months in his speakership, Kevin McCarthy seemed like a man with a title but no power — desperately improvising to keep his job amid factions ready to turn on him in an instant. Now, in his fourth month in alleged power, Speaker Mike Johnson has accomplished what once seemed unthinkable: making McCarthy seem like a skilled strategist and master of the House.
A separate Politico report, quoting House GOP insiders, said it appears Johnson “is flying by the seat of his pants, polishing his reputation for dithering in the face of tough decisions.”
The same report the House speaker’s own senior leadership team “remains entirely in the dark about what he’s thinking.”
Among those who follow Capitol Hill closely, it’s not uncommon to hear conversations about whether Johnson is incompetent or whether the House GOP is simply too radical to function like a governing party.
The problem, of course, is that it’s not an either/or debate: Both points are true. Rank-and-file House Republicans are too far to the right to care about constructive policymaking — see their rejection of a border compromise they demanded, for example — and GOP leaders are too weak to steer them in responsible directions.
Yes, McCarthy did an impossible job badly. He failed to count well. He was easily distracted by shiny objects, instead of focusing on meaningful priorities. He ceded far too much influence to Donald Trump. He was routinely pushed around by his most radical members, whom he tried to appease. He never learned the value of making plans, preferring instead to “wing it” in the hopes of surviving the day, becoming a chess player who only thought one move at a time.
But consider some of the central criticisms his successor is facing. Johnson is failing to count well. He’s become distracted by shiny objects, instead of focusing on meaningful priorities. He’s ceded far too much influence to Donald Trump. He’s routinely pushed around by his most radical members, whom he’s tried to appease. He’s failing to making plans, preferring instead to “wing it” in the hopes of surviving the day, becoming a chess player who only makes one move at a time.
Meet the new hapless House speaker. He’s the same as the old hapless House speaker.
There’s no reason to assume, however, that Johnson has hit rock bottom. As lawmakers head to the airport, they’re due back on Feb. 28 — just a few days before the first of two government shutdown deadlines that GOP leaders have done little to address.
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February 15, 2024 at 08:00PM
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Mike Johnson’s hapless speakership reaches new, embarrassing low - MSNBC
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