Timothy Birdnow

Mike Johnson wins the Speakership.

This man has betrayed the MAGA movement four times since his ascension to the Speaker's chair (this article was written before the last betrayal over spending by Johnson.)

From the interview with Daniel Horowitz:

"Thomas Massie: Let’s talk about the three big betrayals that we’ve seen in the last few weeks. The first was the omnibus. It was bigger than any omnibus that Nancy Pelosi passed. It got a majority of Democrats and got only a minority of Republicans on the roll call. It didn't fund the border. It was atrocious. Yet, it sailed through, and Mike Johnson pushed it through. That's the first betrayal.

You cannot let a man like Mike Johnson, who has betrayed us three times in a row in just a few weeks, stay in power.

Let’s go to the second betrayal, where, again, people say, "Mike's got such a slim majority. It’s too hard to get anything. We just had to take what we could get." That story doesn't work on FISA because FISA was going to get reauthorized. … We had reformed it. We had a warrant provision. If you want to put Americans' names into the database and search through their private records that you've collected, you should have to get a warrant. The stars were lined up, and Mike Johnson supported the warrant provision until he became speaker.

People will argue that Johnson wasn't the tiebreaker and the deciding vote, but I will argue that he was, and I'll tell you why: The speaker doesn't often vote on bills or amendments. In fact, he didn't vote on the other amendments that were on the floor for FISA that day. He went out of his way to do something that he doesn’t frequently do. He voted on an amendment, and he voted against a Republican amendment. The vote ended up being 212-212.

I took a picture of the tie vote and noted that he’s the one who broke the tie.

A majority of Republicans voted for the warrant requirement, and a majority of Democrats voted with Mike Johnson against the warrant requirement. That’s how we ended up with a tie vote, and it failed. Don’t tell me, "Oh, poor Mike Johnson. He's such a religious conservative man, and he’s got such a slim majority. It's hard to get anything done.” That’s his excuse, because ideologically, he was for the warrant requirement before he became speaker. It wasn’t some slim majority that kept us from getting the FISA warrant requirement. It was Mike Johnson himself."

Johnson became Speaker October 25, 2023, so that is quick work; most political hacks take at least two years to screw us over that many times. He's truly an amazing talent.

The argument for Johnson was we didn't need a long fight right at the beginning, and Johnson was counting on that view prevailing. I've heard almost every conservative talk show host parrot that line. But why do we think we'll get anything done with a Speaker who clearly isn't interested in moving our agenda? What exactly HAS Mike Johnson done that credibly advances our cause?

since the Democrats were certain the GOP didn't have the stomach for this fight they all voted for Hakeem Jeffries. Last time they were calling him the "Democratic Speaker" since they helped get him elected.

What our side has never understood is that control of the party is of paramount importance; we are always willing to accept "half a loaf" from people unwilling to give us half. Our greatest enemies are the RINo Republicans. And they work hard to avoid a landslide victory in either chamber of Congress so as to make themselves indispensable and thus we won't challenge them. Then they can block us and we won't do anything about it.

I fear that's what we'll see with Johnson.

I might add Johnson has become BFF's with none other than former House speaker John Boehner, who has been advising Johnson on how do run things. Boehner, you may remember, was a horrible negotiator, starting with the floor of what we would accept then negotiating that away. Johnson followed suit with this last budget deal, and the GOP rebellion is the only thing that stopped us from getting a sweetheart deal for the Donkeys. Johnson's argument was that we needed this off our plate - at a time when we actually could win this and thus set the tone for the next Congress. You MIGHT win by losing sometimes, but the GOP thinks retreat is the sole path to victory, and Johnson is one of the leading cavalrymen charging in reverse.

Winning is a good habit one must get into; you have to believe you can win, and fight to win. Fighting for a draw is what those who are outnumbered and weak are forced to do. The GOP used to be outnumbered and weak, but even when they are in the majority they aCT like they are not in power and let the Democrats run things. Some may call that being reserved,but I would call it cowardice.

Johnson is at best a political leader for a different time; he is not the man to lead the GOP into an era of victory. He thinks like the old guard, always in defensive posture. He doesn't think to attack. He lacks vision. He lacks elon. He lacks daring.

He is much like George McCLellan during the Civil War; all show and no fight. Lincoln grew frustrated to the point where he fired McClellan because the man wouldn't move. Or he's like Horatio Gates during teh Revolution, the man they called "Granny Gates" because he wouldn't go into battle and who almost lost Saratoga (until Benedict Arnold disobeyed his order to stay out of the fight and rallied the men to victory) or like William Hull who was tasked to take Canada during the War of 1812 and ended up surrendering his whole force to a much smaller British army out of the absject fear of an old man.

Johnson is cut from the same cloth as are a majority of elected Republicans; we won't make any headway until we remove these scared bunny rabbits and replace them with some actual men, dudes with some testosterone and hair on their chests - oh, and chests too (I suspect Johnson has just a kind of sunken pit there.)

We cannot win if we don't play. The GOP just doesn't come suited up. They just want to show up and sit on the sidelines.

Trump offers an historic opportunity to affect real change in America but Trump has already made a huge tactical error supporting John Thune and Mike Johnson. You cannot drain the swamp if you leave the same creatures that dwell there in power. The Democrats are crocodiles but the Republicans are water moccasins, snakes that bite you when you don't see them. If you want to drain a swamp you must get rid of both.

We just failed to do that and will be surprised by the failure of the GOP to advance Trump's agenda. I hope all the good Conservative talk show hosts read this and understand it. We were one card away from a flush and traded for what we hoped would give us a pair of fours.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:17 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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