Mike Johnson: so far, so good
So far I like what I see.
I said at the beginning of the McCarthy ouster that there was a chance this would end up with someone better, and if that happened I would be pleased. The risks were high, but at the moment I’m cautiously optimistic about Mike Johnson. Time will tell if he can last in the role.
The left will go after him with all guns blazing given his transparent religious beliefs. Having said that, I agree with your sentiment. As an aside, just read Hayward’s comment on PowerLine comparing the reaction to Charlottesville to the non-reaction to massive River-to-the-sea protests taking place in the US.
I’ve been hearing reports of Matt Gaetz saying things like “we won” and “we got our guy in there now”. Probably not dispositive given Gaetz’ reputation as a loose cannon. But may be at least a good short-term indicator since he was the ringleader in ousting McCarthy and is now strongly backing Johnson so won’t cause more trouble. At least for now…
I think a lot of people owe Matt Gaetz an apology.
Time will tell.
Mike Gaetz is not the speaker, nor is Scalise, nor Jordon.
Funny that Gaetz and the seven dwarves didn’t seem to know who “their guy” was until others figured it out.
At least Gaetz hasn’t betrayed him (Jackson), yet. The need for attention is a pretty strong (and petty) motivator.
Dean Phillips, an interesting person. Maybe something here worth looking at.
I have associates that were griping about the Republicans flirting with shutdown and the this recent speaker thing.
One of the things they kept saying was something about needing term limits. I didn’t say anything since this was at work and I don’t need the grief but the people pushing these things were almost all fairly new to Congress. But term limits is supposed by too many to be the magic fix to everything they don’t like about congress.
I am also cautiously optimistic. They got another appropriations bill through, and Johnson says restoring regular order and reducing spending are his priorities.
Johnson has to deal with the same donors and interest groups, a divided party and a very small majority. It’s only a matter of time before he disappoints somebody.
McCarthy and Gaetz were both incapable of playing the long game — seeing through the little disappointments along the way to achieving goals. I hope Johnson will be able to, but experience suggests that institutions and structures and the big picture are powerful enough and entrenched enough to foil efforts at reform and attempts to unify the party caucus and get things done.
“I think a lot of people owe Matt Gaetz an apology”
I trust that he won’t hold his breath waiting for one from me.
It will be interesting to see how long before he reverts to form.
Mike Johnson not Jackson.
Regarding McCarthy vs Gaetz and the long game, only one was a newbie, but was much more unprincipled as he voted with all the Democrats IIRC.
Another great video by Caroline Glick, interviewing Victor Davis Hanson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7UPBTdkUjw
To the point of this thread, Hanson points out that 65% of Americans support Israel and with what it has to do, so hopefully Mike Johnson will reflect that as Speaker and hold Biden’s feet to the fire with forcing the Administration to honor its word of Israeli support.
And my hope is that Mike Johnson also tackles the debt problem before we get into the national debt doom loop. I recently read that this year is the first year in the history of the US that we will pay more for interest on the national debt than we pay for national defense. It’s only going to snowball from there…
Debt. The solution?
10% across the board. And then 10% across the board again. And again. And again.
Every company I worked for did exactly that when T(financial)SHTF. Reduce cost, cut staff. That’s what it takes to keep the company in business. That’s what it’s going to keep this country going.
Fat chance with the mental midgets populating congress.
I don’t think anybody owes Gaetz an apology for calling him a brash, self-promoting, slicked-back, loud-mouthed attention whore, because that’s what he is, objectively. But if that’s who the voters want representing their district, so be it.
I think it’s good that McCarthy is out, so the gambit paid off and Gaetz gets to hog ‘Hero’ instead of ‘Zero’ credits. All the hyper-ventilating about a ‘paralyzed Congress’ was just BS to begin with, since Democrats were always in a position to vote ‘Yes’ if they wanted to lift paralysis. They didn’t, because they didn’t.
I have hopes for quiet, effective leadership by Johnson, who appears to be a sober grown-up in spite of his relatively short tenure, and appears to be cut from the old cloth of lawmakers that realize they are there primarily to get things done for the country, not promote Ideology Über Alles. We shall see.
@budhaha, I agree 1000%. If the will is there, taking proportional cuts across the board of categories means that nobody gets to claim they are somehow special budgetary victims, requiring exceptional preferences.
10% cuts govt-wide may be the least politically painful way to get to financial sanity, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.
First place to cut is the do-nothing or do-harmful agencies- Energy, Education, Labor, Environment.
Then, take a hard look at everything in the DOD that is not Point of Spear; same for State Dept.
All that, if done ruthlessly, will get us only 10% of the way.
All the money is in SocSec and esp Medicare.
Gradual increase in Full Retirement age, and continued increase in SocSec tax ceiling.
Medicare wastes huge money in futile efforts during the last year of life- 50% of spending in some studies. Much of that is driven by physicians who know the outcome will be grim, but are pushed by family members to do everything for grandma “because she’s a fighter,” and fear lawsuits if they do less than the maximum.
That can be easily fixed by passing statutory protection for physicians in such situations- when certain criteria are met, a physician can keep grandma comfortable until she passes peacefully without fear of legal peril. If family wants to keep beating Grandma’s near dead body until it’s cold, they can fork over the cash.
It would save billions of dollars, spare the elderly a great deal of physical and mental anguish, and free up medical resources for those who can benefit.
I keep hearing that about Gaetz.
I’m reminded of watching Maria Bartiromo criticizing him similarly when this started.
Then she listened to his response on her show moments later and visibly changed her opinion.
Others I’ve talked to have remarked on that also.
It occurred to me this morning that the Founders didn’t have much of a plan except get out from under the yoke of Britain and then we got a Confederation before we got a Constitution.
Gaetz and Founding Fathers in the same paragraph? ….. otay …. time to step away from the keyboard.
No plan, three weeks of Brandon getting a free pass, Mike Johnston is elected. What is Gaetz’s next planless prank?
Gaetz has the disadvantage of looking like an arrogant fraternity guy. Flavors his self-presentation otherwise.
I say this as a fraternity guy whose chapter used to snicker at the “golden greeks” who….looked and acted like Gaetz.
If he can sober up, so to speak, maybe he’ll get along.
I just get really tired of people talking about what they think are the motives of the people they disagree with instead of talking about the issues. If all you can do is attack the motives that you impute to a person then you really don’t have an argument. Ad hominem attacks are what the left uses; don’t fall into that trap yourselves.
I don’t care what you think Gaetz’s motives are or what you think of him as a person; I care about the results of his actions because those are facts that I can judge. I’ll leave judging people’s hearts and motives to someone who can read minds better than I.
Irv +1.
Om, I’m not equating him with the Founders, but we had a lot of chaos and they got lucky. Or God intervened (IMHO).
And if Gaetz is a clown and just got lucky?
We say in the business of designing stuff, Lucky is better than good.
If you count on luck instead of having a plan, you are either lazy or a fool, although you may be lucky occassionally.
The enemy and nature have a say how lucky you will be in the long run.
Irv, thank you. I agree 100%.
Gaetz set a precident of going so far to unseat McCarthy by voting with all the Democrats. Actions that reveal character.
Gaetz’s actions weakened the Republicans and took the attention away from Brandon for three weeks. Actions that reveal character.
Mike Johnson was elected speaker after other conservatives failed. Gaetez’s actions had unforeseen consequences (no plan). But now we have a conservative Speaker (again), possibly more conservative than McCarthy.
Will Gaetz act without a plan again against Johnson? That will depend on many unknowns and Gaetz’s character.
An opinion of Gaetz’s character is just that, an opinion. I prefer to judge facts and it turns out that he did a thing that both needed doing and had overall very good results.
It looked to me as if the country was headed off a cliff and without drastic change it could not be stopped. If you force a swerve you might hit a tree or you might roll over but you at least have a chance of surviving. If you continue straight ahead off the cliff, even if you slow down, you won’t survive.
As the great sage Yogi Berra said “Predictions are hard, especially about the future.” I’ll judge Gaetz’s next actions by their results and not by opinions about his character. I elect rulers by my judgment of their character but I elect representatives by the results of their actions being the ones I’m after,
“The left will go after him with all guns blazing given his transparent religious beliefs….”
And here’s that once decent but currently benighted rag, TNR, right on cue…
“New House Speaker: Soft-Spoken. Mild-Mannered. Raging Theocrat.
“Mike Johnson is an extremist in every way that matters.”—
https://newrepublic.com/post/176469/maga-mike-johnson-right-jim-jordan
(TNR rarely, if ever, disappoints….)
“… by voting with all the Democrats.”
That’s such a canard.
That doesn’t give him the same motive.
How many times was McCarthy in league with those same democrats?
Which was the root of the problem.
ire
If you’re remarking to me about discussing motivations, I apologize. My point about Gaetz is that his self-presentation including what God gave him for a face and hairline can be a handicap when trying to present something reasonable-if looking like some trouble otherwise.
Mr. Rogers could sell the same thing better to the public.
@ Ed Bonderenka
I think a lot of people owe Matt Gaetz an apology.
I don’t. He’s done enough damage.