Week-In-Review

The Republican Party Is Unserious

Thoughts and rhetorical questions on this week’s political chaos coming from the GOP.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

House Republicans

• How would you grade Mike Johnson’s speakership so far? Do you think Mike Johnson will last longer than a year?
• Johnson just made a deal to keep the government open with a lot of Democratic votes, and only a slight majority of Republicans voted for it. This led to Steve Bannon calling him out as now being on borrowed time. Is Steve Bannon relevant? He owes 4 months in prison and a fine that he has delayed with several appeals. Will he have a “Mein Kampf” cultural moment while pretending to be a martyr?
• The bipartisan deal kicks the can down the road and creates two new deadlines — in Jan. 19, and Feb. 2 — which will of course prompt further standoffs risking shutdowns again.
• Who is an alternative if Republicans sour on Johnson?
• Back to McCarthy? Jim Jordan? Another hail mary back bencher?
• Is the Republican Speaker of the House an impossible job? Is the term “Republican speaker” now an oxymoron, because who can honestly be a speaker for this wild caucus tent cramming together roughly three groups: MAGA bomb-throwers, center-right…