After three weeks of drama, we finally have a new speaker of the House in Louisiana Republican Congressman Mike Johnson. The smug triumphalism of Democrats and their media sympathizers over alleged GOP dysfunction is at an end, and the urgent business of grappling with the many pressing issues at hand — appropriations, investigation of Biden family bribery and influence-peddling, the catastrophe on our southern border, and the growing menace of a possible world war prominent among them — can finally resume. As revealed by the filterless Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to Steve Bannon, much of the three weeks of turmoil was actually being orchestrated behind the scenes by serpentine ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who hoped that his rule-or-ruin campaign would ultimately restore the speaker’s gavel to him. But once McCarthy’s machinations were laid bare, the House GOP very quickly and unanimously voted Johnson, a relative congressional novice, their new speaker.
But what do we actually know about the new speaker? Mike Johnson is an acclaimed lawyer and constitutional scholar, and these bona fides are to some extent borne out by his cumulative Freedom Index score of 72 percent, well above that of Kevin McCarthy or Steve Scalise — but behind that of Jim Jordan. Combing through Johnson’s voting record, we find a consistent weakness for interventionist foreign policy to be his Achilles’ heel. He has voted more than once to continue funding the U.S. occupation of Syria, for example, and has voted in favor of, or avoided voting on, more than one House resolution supporting NATO. He even voted in June 2021 in favor of H.R. 567, which would allow the secretary of state to establish the “Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Program” (TSCTP), a new entangling alliance with a host of Saharan countries to share intelligence on terrorism, secure the borders of those countries, and even provide a host of social services — all in the name of combating global terrorism.
And there are a few other votes that may or may not be indicative of deeper RINO leanings, such as his vote in 2021 to make “Juneteenth” a federal holiday. In general, though, Johnson has been solid on social issues such as abortion.
Johnson has been a staunch Trump supporter. The liberal mainstream media knows this, of course, which is why, at Johnson’s first public appearance as speaker, ABC News reporter Rachel Scott started the questioning by aggressively asking Scott about his supposed effort to overturn the 2020 election results. The buoyant GOP caucus, in no mood for gotcha journalism, laughed and shouted her down, Johnson refused to dignify the barb with an answer, and the press conference ended abruptly.
As to what Johnson is likely to do as speaker, we hope that GOP commitments to follow the Biden investigation wherever it may lead, to force the Biden administration to control the border, and to impose fiscal discipline on the appropriations process will all now move forward decisively.
