Keller: Second attempt to remove House Speaker in less than a year seems doomed to fail
BOSTON - The Republican congresswoman who wants to force out House Speaker Mike Johnson says she's ready to make her move. But the second effort to remove a speaker this year seems doomed to fail now that Democrats have said they'll kill it.
"The Chock Full O'Nuts caucus"
"'Pro-life' Mike Johnson funded full-term abortion clinics, funded the trans agenda on children," said Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the would-be terminator of the Republican speaker on behalf of what Worcester Rep. Jim McGovern calls "the Chock Full O'Nuts caucus - she says no to everything and is for nothing. She's a dangerous demagogue."
And, it seems, headed for failure now that Democratic leaders have vowed to join with most Republicans to derail her move to oust Johnson.
"But if he decides to pander to the Marjorie Taylor Greene wing of the party, well then all bets are off," warned McGovern. But he says Johnson won his reprieve by supporting funding for the Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression, and because the abrupt loss of a second House speaker this year would be too risky. "Funding the government, that's a big deal, or if there's a national emergency or am international emergency, we're gonna have to respond. And if we're not functioning, then God help us."
For Greene, the 10th most prolific fundraiser in the House, the politics of all this work just fine. "I can't wait to see Democrats go out and support a Republican speaker and have to go home to their primaries," she said.
To which Lowell Congresswoman Lori Trahan, co-chair of a group guiding Democratic campaign messaging, responds: "Yes, we are going to take that message. I do think that people are looking at this particular Congress and the extreme members who have brought the Congress to a halt on a number of occasions for political theater."
Who wins in attempt to remove Mike Johnson?
So who are the winners and losers from all this?
Greene will surely get what she wants - more publicity, more campaign donations, and more applause from people who think "grind it all to a halt" is an attractive governing philosophy.
And Democrats are likely winners too, as candidates up and down the ballot can point to this as evidence that the Republicans just can't handle political power.
