The Speaker’s Race

[LuFins Dad]

I think it might be a wee bit difficult for Johnson to buck Trump…

[Mik]

Like I said, Trump learned a lot in his first term and since.

[jon-nyc]

@LuFins-Dad said in The Speaker’s Race:

I think it might be a wee bit difficult for Johnson to buck Trump…

Johnson’s not really the problem. It’ll be the one or two outliers.

[jon-nyc]

@Mik said in The Speaker’s Race:

Like I said, Trump learned a lot in his first term and since.

I don’t know. They haven’t really displayed that yet. Trump and his buddies still talk regularly about grand changes that would require bipartisan majorities but the tactical approach seems to be corral the GOP and go it alone. That will get you a budget-like thing (CR, whatever) and even a tax cut but nothing else.

I don’t think Thune is planning a complete overhaul of Senate rules.

[Doctor Phibes]

It's certainly hard to imagine Donald Trump bullshitting extravagantly.

And what was there to learn? His first Presidency was the greatest in the history of the country. His words, not mine, so it must be true.

[taiwan_girl]

https://apnews.com/article/house-intelligence-committee-speaker-0a28ddc03b3944b4d459f7ff5f0278bd

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday removed the GOP chairman of the powerful House Intelligence Committee, who was a vocal supporter of assistance for Ukraine and held other views that put him at odds with President-elect Donald Trump.

Johnson told reporters late Wednesday that Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, would no longer lead the committee, which oversees the nation’s intelligence agencies and holds tremendous influence over law enforcement and foreign policy.

[jon-nyc]

Gotta purge the Reaganites.

The funny thing is he tells Turner there’s too many headwinds from mar a lago then smiles to the camera and says ‘it’s a House decision’ and went on about what a great job Turner did.

I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t remember firing anyone who was doing a great job.

[taiwan_girl]

Speaker Mike Johnson faced down a bruising “hell week” and ultimately pulled several key GOP bills across the line. But it came at a cost.

Republicans say Johnson’s habit of making last-minute, often contradictory promises to keep his tiny majority functioning is starting to catch up with him. Frustrations over his leadership, they say, are at an all-time high.

“I think this guy has divided us with a smile,” said Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), a longtime Johnson skeptic who has grown more vocal with his criticism and now says “without question” he will vote against keeping Johnson as top GOP leader in the next Congress.

This week’s chaos came to a head late Wednesday, with multiple members of key Republican factions yelling and swearing at Johnson on the House floor and in closed-door meetings.

Johnson tried to quell a rebellion among conservative hard-liners by privately reneging on an agreement with a group of midwestern Republicans that would have tied legislation allowing year-round sales of an ethanol fuel blend to the must-pass farm bill.

When some of the ethanol provision’s backers ran back to the floor to try to figure out what happened, they were too late. Some later confronted Johnson, who is now promising a future vote on the matter.

“Bullshit,” Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) yelled at the speaker as he tried to explain what happened later in the day, according to three people who participated in the huddle and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

This week’s floor chaos was just the latest example of Johnson leading crisis by crisis, ultimately pulling off GOP priorities but leaving a trail of disgruntled members and staffers in his wake, according to more than a dozen Republicans interviewed for this story.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/01/mike-johnson-leadership-complaints-00902390

[Mik]

Herding cats. The GOP civil war runs deep, it’s really bad at my county level. Vicious.

[jon-nyc]

It’s close to impossible to govern the house with a few seat majority. Every possible candidate would have the same problem.