Johnson on Verge of Losing Speakership

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has backed himself into a corner over the latest budget fight, and I am not sure he is going to make it out.

To be clear, Johnson will hold the gavel through the end of this congressional session, but I don’t see any way that he will be the one slamming it again when Congress resumes after the general election.

Ironically, the very thing that got Johnson the gavel in the first place, his loyalty to Trump, will eventually cost him the gavel.

Appeasing Everyone

Donald Trump wanted election integrity legislation included in the current spending bill. Otherwise, Trump was quite vocal that he would risk shutting down the government go get Democrats to concede.

Johnson is no fool, and he knows if the government shuts down, Democrats and the media will blame the GOP for the shutdown.

Democrats also know this, which means Johnson has zero leverage in terms of adding legislation to the funding bill to keep the government operational through March.

His best hope is to have stripped-down funding with no additional legislation attached, but that will not pacify Trump.

In other words, there is no way Johnson can get funding passed that would pacify Trump and the second that Johnson concedes, Trump is going to attack him.

Johnson's problem with the House Freedom Caucus has been his continuing renege on the promise of single-issue legislation.

Other House members realize that Johson was probably in a no-win situation from the get-go, as some of the things that were promised were simply unrealistic, given the slim majority that Republicans hold.

Even so, some expected him to work miracles, with Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) stating, “There’s a lot of disappointment in how he’s handled the job. There’s been opportunities, that’s for sure.”

If I were in leadership, I would tell Donald Trump that the legislation he wants to be passed will never make it through the Senate or be signed by Biden, so back off the demand and back Johnson to pass stripped-down funding.

I don’t like CRs, as I have stated many times, but the GOP needs to roll the dice that it will win the House and Senate and address the legislation it wants to pass at that point.

Then they can really start to wheel and deal in the Senate to get the things they want passed while throwing Democrats a small bone so they can swallow that pill.

That, however, is not going to happen, which means Johnson’s time as Speaker is likely up when the gavel falls for the last time during this session.

But then the question is who will lead the House and is capable of getting the entire caucus on the same page… sadly, I don’t see that person in office right now.