House Republicans are struggling with the same battles over government funding that led to the chaotic unseating of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), seemingly cutting any honeymoon short for new Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). GOP leadership this week yanked two spending bills from the floor amid disputes on spending and other controversial policy items. With a government funding deadline less than a week away, the conference seems hopelessly divided on how to avert a shutdown.
McCarthy could hope to get at least a few Dems to substitute for the right wing crazies. Johnson is a right wing crazy, and there’s [ed:]no pool of super-crazy right wingers he can use to substitute for moderate GOP.
I imagine this back-room negotiation, where the moderates told the crazies they can have the Speaker in exchange for just keeping the government open, and now they’re learning the lesson we’ve known all along: right wing crazies never negotiate in good faith.
Johnson can’t substitute ultra MAGAs for moderate GOP because the GOP has a razor-thin majority, and so that would still mean he’d need to get Democrat votes. But Democrats will probably not vote for anything crazy that Johnson comes up with, first because it wouldn’t pass in the Senate, and second, because they are all watching the GOP implode in real time.