Republicans are notorious for shooting themselves in the foot. Many voters believe they have sound policies and principles, but when it comes to playing politics, they often get the wool pulled over their eyes.
While they are holding the slimmest majority in the history of the House of Representatives, they passed a rule that only one representative is needed to call up a vote to oust the Speaker. This rule led to a standstill on the floor and the eventual ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The far right of the party believes Republicans should be able to get a lot more done with their 1 to 2 vote majority, but Speaker Johnson cut some deals to make sure the government and the wars overseas were funded. This led Marjorie Taylor Greene to try to kick Mike Johnson out. It did not go as she expected.
From The Hill:
The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to protect Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from a conservative coup, torpedoing an effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust the GOP leader from the top job.The chamber voted 359-43-7 on a motion to table Greene’s motion to vacate, preventing the removal resolution from hitting the floor for a vote.
How did Johnson manage to get such a large majority to support him? Well, Democrats were having none of this nonsense, unlike last time when they allowed Kevin McCarthy to get the boot.
Johnson has conservative credentials, but has clearly been willing to make deals to keep things running (not much different than Kevin McCarthy). But chaos at this time of the election season, even with the ability to place the blame on the GOP, had its downsides. Here’s one perspective on the current situation after this vote.
From DNYUZ:
Representative Mike Johnson can now, for better or worse, truly lay claim to being speaker of the whole House, after Democrats saved him from a Republican-led coup on Wednesday in another remarkable moment in a chaotic Congress filled with them. Had Democrats not come to his rescue, the votes existed in his own party to potentially oust him.
Johnson didn’t manage to get the votes of all Democrats, as the far-left of the party still voted against him. But it is quite an achievement to get the large majority of both Republicans and Democrats to place their confidence in the Speaker.
Not only should this put to rest any nonsense like this in the future, it hopefully signals at least a brief moment of peace and unity in the House. Maybe they can put that to good use for the American people.
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