MAGA Speaker

So now we get to say that we believe in Big Mike, right?

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Loooozeanna) knows his way around a swamp. I never heard of this cat when his name popped up about three days ago -- I thought it was supposed to be Byron Donalds, who is a good guy and swift on the mic, but is a first-termer (maybe second). We don't want ossified business-as-usual types, but despite how much I like Donalds (he is really good at media pushback), considering him for Speaker smacked of a desperate diversity swerve. Donalds deserves better and so do we. I'll be happy to support Donalds later.

Ol' Gramscipedia says that Mike Johnson (who?) took his station in the House of Representatives in January of 2017 -- yup, he's a MAGA Baby, baby! As many of us have discovered in this lightning round yesterday and today, he's solid on all sorts of crunchycon goodness, including J6 and the 2020 election. Democrats are in hysterics. Direct hit!

So, guess what -- the Gaetz maneuver worked perfectly. He tipped the ball and after several bumps, somebody absolutely spiked it off the opposition's head, DOINK. I understand that Johnson's Speakership went through on the first vote with zero otherwise votes from Republicans. That right there is the legendary no-wipe!

I confess to a tiny bit of schadenfreude, but mostly I hope to hear grace and constructive brainstorming for the future from people have been shouting about how the stupid, treacherous, no-plan-having, Worse-than-Worthless Eight have screwed us --screwed! they said -- for all eternity and so forth.

Mark Levin, among others, has been unusually caustic, shooting all up in this tent. I've responded a couple of times on Twitter (not that he reads me) saying calmly that I love Levin's stuff, but that I disagree, and that this is a risk for a reward, and that we were losing anyway. The only thing we had to fear was Republicans voting for a Democrat! How would that have been the fault of the Eight?

So I will be quite happy to let bygones be bygones, and just let the House get to work, hopefully not robbing us blind, hopefully not disappointing us more than the usual, and hopefully holding the Democrats' stupid ideas out over the balcony and dropping them one by one until they capitulate. It will be a nice change from the internal squabble. Let's start with regular order and separate appropriations!

Peace? All is forgiven, for the low, low price of climbing down a bit and admitting that Gaetz got it right. Not that it was a slam-dunk, but it was a risk run for great reward, and it worked -- the bogeyman lefty Republicans did not after all vote Democrat, and we got a Speaker whom the Democrats loathe, because he doesn't take their guff. That means that we the people don't take their guff. Win-win!

Deal?