The House Has Elected Mike Johnson as Speaker

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | October 25, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | October 25, 2023 |

2:05: After three weeks and four Speaker-designees, the GOP has finally elected a Speaker. It came in a non-dramatic fashion. There were zero defections. The GOP was just tired of the process. I guess all it took was to find a hard-right conservative who opposes abortion and same-sex marriage that no one has ever heard of.

Good luck running the henhouse, Mike. I’m sure all the ultraconservatives love him today, but let’s see how they feel when Johnson is charged with keeping the government open next month, and those Biden Republicans decide to oust him.

Original Article
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Yesterday was a journey. The day began with Tom Emmer being voted in as the Speaker of the House designee, but dropping out within four hours because it was clear he would not be able to get the votes, particularly after Donald Trump called him a “globalist RINO.” Soon thereafter, Mike Johnson — the Congressional Representative from Louisianna who came in second to Emmer in voting earlier in the day — had been elected the next Speaker designee.

There’s reason to believe that Johnson will actually be voted in as Speaker. That’s not good.

The reason Johnson is likely to be voted in despite being a hard-right ultraconservative is that he’s not the sort of firebrand narcissist that Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz are. He’s quietly evil but also hasn’t rubbed anyone the wrong way. He’s the “he’ll do, because we can’t continue doing this” candidate. The very fact that he doesn’t have a lot of name recognition is exactly why he’s likely to win. Hardliners will vote for him because they agree with his politics, and moderates will vote for him because he’s quiet and unassuming enough that they don’t think that Democrats will be able to make much political hay from him come election time. He’s not Jim Jordan. He’s not Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor Green. He looks like a Sunday school teacher (and also a villain in a The Purge movie).

But don’t underestimate his politics. This guy not only voted against certifying the 2020 election, he was the architect behind the Electoral College objections. Johnson, a Constitutional attorney, provided 139 House of Representatives with defensible cover by couching their objections underneath a reasonable-sounding legal argument. He was on Trump’s legal team while they were trying to overturn the election.

He’s also very popular in a blood-red Louisianna district. He opposes abortion, marijuana access, and same-sex marriage, while he’s also a believer in conversion therapy. He’s also opposed to sending additional aid to Ukraine, which might be a hiccup for him. He believes that both COVID and climate change are hoaxes, that vaccines are dangerous, and that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. If you’re wondering what kind of company he keeps, he’s worked with Kirk Cameron before. He also tried to pass a bill in Louisianna called the Marriage and Conscience Act that was so conservative that only one other Republican in Louisianna voted for it, while another Republican called Johnson a “despicable bigot of the highest order” for trying to push it through.

That is to say: He will come for same-sex marriage. Its survival in Southern states may depend upon the 2024 election.

A vote on Mike Johnson is expected around noon today. Word is, if it fails, there’s a possibility that moderate Republicans may consider joining forces with Democrats to elect Patrick McHenry as Speaker.