Next Speaker of the House? (10 Viewers)

Mike Johnson, the new Republican speaker of the House, is not exactly a well-known figure. When his GOP colleagues made him second in line to the presidency last week, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was so unfamiliar with him that she told a reporter she would have to Google him.

All that will likely change between now and next November.

Johnson is a Trump-loving, election-denying, abortion ban-supporting, gay rights-opposing, climate change-rejecting, and conspiracy-believing conservative. If House Democrats are smart, they will turn Mike Johnson into a household name — though not in a good way.

Republicans chose Johnson because, let’s face it, they ran out of options. Kevin McCarthy was fired. Jim Jordan was rejected. And Tom Emmer barely lasted four hours as speaker-designate. But in selecting Johnson, Republicans made one small error — they failed to vet him.

If they had, they’d have discovered that he was Democrats’ dream speaker candidate. On practically every issue on which House Republicans will be vulnerable in 2024, Johnson takes an extreme, maximalist position. For any GOP candidates in a close race, and especially the 18 House Republicans running in congressional districts President Biden won in 2020, he will be a political albatross.

Let’s start with a simple example: safeguarding American democracy. Johnson wasn’t just an accomplice in Trump’s efforts to steal the 2020 election; he was, as The New York Times put it, “an architect” of GOP objections to certifying election results in the House of Representatives. According to Politico, he was “the leading voice” in the House “in support of a fateful position: that the GOP should rally around Donald Trump and object to counting electoral votes submitted by at least a handful of states won by Joe Biden.”

While many members supported Trump for cynical reasons, Johnson was a true believer, even signing a amicus brief in support of Texas’ lawsuit to invalidate election results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin.

If House Democrat challengers want to run on the message that their GOP opponents are a threat to democracy, they can point to their vote to make Johnson speaker. Every GOP House member who voted for Johnson effectively endorsed his efforts to disenfranchise tens of millions of American voters, or at the very least that’s how Democratic candidates will portray it.

What if Democratic candidates instead want to emphasize the GOP’s support for abortion bans? Johnson has given them plenty of material.

He said of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, “Many of us have been working towards this day our entire adult lives, and it is a joyous occasion.” He declared, “There is no right to abortion in the Constitution; there never was,” and called abortion a “holocaust.” One can imagine that women in competitive House districts will disagree.

Though Johnson has said that he will not push Congress to pass a federal abortion ban, he previously co-sponsored legislation that would place nationwide limits on access to abortion services. Voters may not know that yet, but that fact undoubtedly will find its way into Democratic attacks ads next fall...................

The wife of newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson removed a website for her company the day after a report revealed that documents posted on the site compared homosexuality to bestiality and incest.

Kelly Johnson removed the site for Onward Christian Counseling Services after HuffPost reported on the documents on Friday.

The site linked to an operating agreement from 2017, which stated that according to the company’s bylaws, the firm, which offers pastoral counselling, is based on the notion that sex is offensive to God unless it’s between a man and a woman who are married to each other.

“We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God,” the eight-page document stated.

The document also said that the firm worked to protect life “from conception through natural death”, mentioning “pre-born babies”.

The site was taken down by Saturday afternoon, the outlet notes…….

Ugh

Optimus Prime said:

The wife of newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson removed a website for her company the day after a report revealed that documents posted on the site compared homosexuality to bestiality and incest.

Kelly Johnson removed the site for Onward Christian Counseling Services after HuffPost reported on the documents on Friday.

The site linked to an operating agreement from 2017, which stated that according to the company’s bylaws, the firm, which offers pastoral counselling, is based on the notion that sex is offensive to God unless it’s between a man and a woman who are married to each other.

“We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God,” the eight-page document stated.

The document also said that the firm worked to protect life “from conception through natural death”, mentioning “pre-born babies”.

The site was taken down by Saturday afternoon, the outlet notes…….

Speaker’s wife removes website that compared being gay with bestiality

Company bylaws state that ‘adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God’

www.the-independent.com

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Johnson has a history of saying he not only supports overturning Obergefell, he believes in reinstituting sodomy laws that criminalize the things gay couples do in their own homes.

I don’t think pulling her website down moves the needle very much on that.

CBO weighs in on the proposed IRS cuts. The ONLY reason to do this is to appease the fat cats that have always been R donors. It makes no sense for 90% of the US. Maybe 99%.

So this guy is actually really dumb, or he is a dishonest liar, who thinks we are exceedingly stupid. It’s not rocket science that funding the IRS brings in more money than is spent on it. Any idiot knows that.

Better more succinct way of putting it. This guy is bad news.

MT15 said:

So this guy is actually really dumb, or he is a dishonest liar, who thinks we are exceedingly stupid. It’s not rocket science that funding the IRS brings in more money than is spent on it. Any idiot knows that.

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It’s literally the same as saying “I quit my job to save money on having to buy work clothes and commute.”

Just because you saved money doesn’t mean it’s a net gain for you.

This guy is a joke.

I don’t think Johnson is a warrior for religious freedom - quite the opposite actually. He wants his religion to be what everyone follows.

Great job the new Speaker is doing.

MT15 said:

Great job the new Speaker is doing.

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Predictable.

ICYMI, the government will shut down in 14 days unless they pass a budget.

DJ1BigTymer said:

ICYMI, the government will shut down in 14 days unless they pass a budget.

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MT15 said:

I don’t think Johnson is a warrior for religious freedom - quite the opposite actually. He wants his religion to be what everyone follows.

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Isn’t that true for everyone who says they are for religious freedom?

Seems for most of the People who scream the loudest about freedom their personal definition of freedom is “ability to say and do whatever I want without consequence” and it’s their personal definition

“I can say and do whatever I want, you can’t say and do whatever you want” (unless I approve)

Secondary definition: "I want to have the freedom to stop you from having your freedom”

The red flags on this guy have little red flags attached to them….He has not declared any assets at all on his financial disclosures since he’s been in the House. Not one checking or savings account. No investments, nothing. That is weird. He scrubbed mention of being dean of a law school from his bio after people pointed out the law school never actually existed. His black “adopted son” and the 2 years he took him in before he was married, while claiming he and his wife adopted him as a couple.

Does he think people and/or reporters won’t dig into this stuff?

some speculation here after a little bit of digging:

The law school debacle for anyone who wants to read it. Should be a gift link:

MT15 said:

The law school debacle for anyone who wants to read it. Should be a gift link:

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Dear Republicans:

Is there anyone in your caucus who isn't a fictitious, looney tunes sleazeball?