Good Mike, bad Mike

 On the heels of doing the obviously right thing in getting an aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan passed - and garnering worldwide accolades for doing so - House Speaker Mike Johnson makes it apparently every bit as obvious that he is a drool-besotted throne-sniffer who is tying his ambitions to the fate of the Very Stable Genius:

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) survived a bid by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to oust him from the speakership thanks to Democrats killing her effort, but some may be having second thoughts.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) told NBC News he believes Democrats made a mistake by killing the motion to vacate against him, arguing Johnson’s visit to former President Donald Trump’s trial in Manhattan has exposed the House speaker’s “true colors.”

“It showed his true colors and why, with good intentions, we made a mistake in strategically saving his job,” Connolly said. “Because now we have enabled him to act with impunity like he did.”

The effort to oust Johnson was tabled by an overwhelming majority in a 359-43 bipartisan vote, with most Republicans and Democrats electing to keep Johnson in power rather than risk another long, bitter speaker election like in January and October 2023.

The House speaker told the outlet he does not think he will face another motion to vacate this year, noting how most members want a “functioning Congress.”

“What I think most people in this building recognize is that the nation desperately needs a functioning Congress right now,” Johnson said. “These are very dangerous times in which we are living. We have hot wars going on around the globe. And we have all the unrest. Even here domestically, we’ve had the open border, so we have a potentially very dangerous situation here on our own shores.”

Johnson was one of several Republicans who have made the trek to Manhattan to support Trump as he attends his hush money trial.

Other Republicans who joined Trump in New York City included Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) and Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and J.D. Vance (R-OH), along with Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Cory Mills (R-FL).

As I wrote at Precipice yesterday,

. . . doesn’t it look a little incongruous for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who makes a point of putting his Christian faith front and center, to make the prosecution’s zeal the main point? Yes, there is a solid rule-of-law angle to this, and precedents could be set that would subject future presidents to ever-more-frivolous legal challenges . . . but come on, nobody doubts that Trump had a tryst with Stormy Daniels (the included a bonus spanking with a rolled-up magazine) or a months-long affair with Karen McDougal, all while Melania was home with an infant Barron. Nobody doubts there were other dalliances as well.

For the I’m-not-voting-for-a-pastor crowd, I’d ask how confident they are that things would go well on a policy level in a. second Trump administration.

The Speaker needs to ask himself if his choice to hitch to this wagon really glorifies the Creator he claims to put first.