Johnson easily survives challenge by Greene
"She got a mudhole stomped in her rear end."
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for May 9, 2024:
Another controversial tweet from the GOP meme expert.
Republicans try to outlaw something that’s already illegal.
A big price tag to extend the Trump tax cuts.
MRS. GREENE OF GEORGIA. After weeks and weeks of threatening to lead a GOP rebellion to toss out House Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) finally put her party on the record yesterday. The outcome was a major defeat for Greene, as the House overwhelmingly voted 359-43-7 against her plan. Only 11 Republicans wanted to open the door to a third GOP Speaker in this Congress.
GOP. To put it mildly, Republicans were pissed off at Greene, even her fellow GOP lawmakers from Georgia. "It seems to me she got a mudhole stomped in her rear end," said Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA).
MORE. "She's an embarrassment to her district," added Rep. John Duarte (R-CA). "This was only a move for notoriety. She knew she would lose." “This is damaging to the Republican Party,” fumed Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA).
STEPS. Rushing out to the Capitol steps before Greene could get there, backers of the Speaker made clear their anger to reporters and TV cameras. "I think you see from everyone, from Donald Trump on down, nobody thinks this is productive," said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). "The hypocrisy knows no bounds," said Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL).
SCENE. It was really interesting to watch the supporters of Speaker Johnson stand there on the House steps while Greene was holding court with reporters after her vote had failed. Those GOP lawmakers weren't holding back - in fact, Duarte was so loud at one point that Greene's top aide turned around and laughed at his verbal jab.
DEMS. As for Democrats, they booed and cheered as Greene read her list of grievances on the House floor. 163 of them voted to kill Greene's resolution, while 32 registered their opposition to Speaker Johnson. It basically put Greene on the same page at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
HORSESHOE. "So you have 11 Republicans voting with every member of the Squad," said Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI). "On what planet does that make sense?" Van Orden said as he ripped Greene. "My constituents didn't send me out here to be in a junior high school reality television show."
GREENE. "Tonight, you saw the Uniparty in action," Greene declared, as she labeled the Speaker 'pathetic' and 'weak.' "I'm proud of myself," Greene told reporters outside. "I'm doing everything I promised when I ran for Congress," as she ridiculed her GOP colleagues. "He's now the Democrat-controlled Speaker of the House because they saved him."
SASSY. "Vacating Kevin McCarthy was a huge mistake," said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), referring to the GOP rebellion of 2023 that brought Johnson to power. "Keeping Mike Johnson is an even bigger mistake."
GOP ELEVEN. Along with Greene and Massie, these were the other Republicans who registered their opposition to Speaker Johnson on the Greene vote: Biggs AZ, Burlison MO, Crane AZ, Davidson OH, Gosar AZ, Mooney WV, Moore AL, Roy TX, and Spartz IN.
SURPRISE. Greene did not seem to give GOP leaders a heads up that she was going to force this vote. You could immediately sense the aggravation - and the concern among allies of the Speaker. But in the end, he had more than enough votes to survive (at least for now).
WHAT’S NEXT. Normally, your party should spend an election year attacking the other party. But it sure looks like Greene is going to spend a lot of time dogging Speaker Johnson. Again - this makes absolutely no sense. But that’s where the Republican Party is right now.
MIKE COLLINS. Greene wasn't the only lawmaker from Georgia making bad headlines on Wednesday. Another Georgia GOP Congressman who has made a name for himself with a quick draw on social media is in hot water for a second time in a week for one of his posts. This time, it was about the Kennedys.
DEAD KENNEDYS. "You either die a Kennedy with a hole in the brain or live long enough to become a Kennedy with a hole in the brain," Collins tweeted, evidently trying to riff on the news that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. evidently was found to have a worm in his brain.
OLE MISS. Five days earlier, Collins had to backtrack and apologize after a tweet about a video from the University of Mississippi that he first approved of - but then called 'potentially inappropriate.' (It showed a frat boy making sounds like a monkey at a black woman protester.)
REACTION. "Yes I work with morons," said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), as some prominent conservative commentators urged Collins to put down his phone. I certainly don't expect that to happen.
NPR. Republicans used a House hearing on Wednesday to blast National Public Radio, as NPR CEO Katherine Maher refused to testify. "If she can't uphold unbiased reporting, she should step down," said Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), as Republicans were more than happy to make NPR into a Congressional piñata.
GOP. Republicans blasted NPR's 'extremely liberal culture' and again took aim at the money it gets from taxpayers. "Why should NPR receive taxpayer money while its editors refuse to provide balanced reporting, and its leaders refuse to answer our questions?" said Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL).
REFRAIN. I've certainly covered this story before, as Republicans have tried repeatedly to stop taxpayer funding for both NPR and PBS Television - but they've never been successful.
TRUMP TAX CUTS. One of the biggest political landmines coming up for Congress (and whoever is President) will be in 2025 when the individual tax provisions of the Trump tax cuts expire. How much would it "cost" to make those tax cuts permanent in law? The Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday said the price tag would be $3.8 trillion over 10 years.
SPECIFICS. In other words, if the Congress moves to extend the Trump tax cuts, that will make the deficit larger. Why? Because the current estimates of the federal deficit use current law - and under current law, individual income tax rates and much more are scheduled to go up on January 1, 2026.
TAX NERD NOTE. If you want to see what federal tax provisions are expiring in 2025, then I have a handy-dandy publication from the Joint Committee on Taxation.
ILLEGAL VOTING. Speaker Mike Johnson led a news conference out on the House steps yesterday which seemed more like a campaign stop for Donald Trump than anything else. Johnson was joined by Trump World figures like Stephen Miller and Hogan Gidley, pressing a bill to outlaw something which is already illegal - that is illegal immigrants voting in U.S. elections.
ARGUMENT. "We all know - intuitively - that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections," Speaker Johnson told reporters. "But it's not been something that is easily provable. We don't have that number."
EVIDENCE. Let's be very honest. Johnson and others 'don't have that number' because there is little evidence of illegal immigrants voting in federal elections. It does happen - like 19 charged in North Carolina back in 2020. But there is no evidence that it is widespread by any means.
VOTER FRAUD. The search for evidence of illegal immigrants voting is a lot like the GOP search for evidence that the 2020 election was ‘rigged.’ There are a lot of charges - but very little evidence to back up those allegations.
STEPPED ON. One more note about this GOP voting event. It might have been the biggest messaging story for Republicans on Capitol Hill yesterday. But because of the Greene challenge to Speaker Johnson last night, it was blotted out. When your team doesn’t play like a team, it’s hard to be successful.
ENDORSEMENTS. This Congress has been highly unusual in many ways. One of them is how Republicans are turning against some of their own incumbent colleagues, and endorsing their primary challengers. There was more of that yesterday from the House Freedom Caucus.
TRIFECTA. The Freedom Caucus put out a list of Congressional endorsements for 2024, which included an effort to defeat three sitting GOP incumbents. The group endorsed a primary challenger to Rep. William Timmons (R-SC), against Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT), and to Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA).
DIVISION. Again, this is crazy. It is considered very bad form to try to defeat one of your own - and yet, it's become routine. A number of GOP lawmakers have endorsed the challenger to Rep. Bob Good (R-VA). Others are trying to defeat Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX). It shows a party that's divided.
INDIANA. I didn't expect to see this headline yesterday after the primaries for Congress in Indiana - but it's true. "Winner in Indiana’s GOP race for U.S. House District 7 has been dead since March."
DEADLINE. That's right. Republican Jennifer Pace died of a heart attack in March - after the ballot deadline. She finished 320 votes ahead of Catherine Ping. The GOP candidate to run against Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) will be chosen by local party leaders for November.
RAP SHEET. A Georgia man - and two of his sons - were arrested this week on charges related to Jan. 6. William Gallagher helped other rioters pull police officers away from the doors leading into the Capitol Rotunda, which allowed hundreds of people to enter the building. The dad and sons later confronted police in the Rotunda and were hit with pepper spray.
MUSE OF HISTORY. May 9, 1974. On this date, the House Judiciary Committee began meeting behind closed doors to consider impeachment evidence against President Nixon related to the Watergate scandal. "We understand our high constitutional responsibility," said Rep. Peter Rodino (D-NJ), the panel's chairman. Nixon would resign three months later.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House is back for votes on May 14.
The Senate convenes at 12 noon.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
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In college, I was sent out to cover a town v. gown court dispute for the campus newspaper. When I got the edited copy back, three different sentences were circled in red pen. In the margin was scrawled, “Prove it or lose it!” I’m pretty sure if Speaker Johnson had tried to turn in “We all know — intuitively — that a lot of illegals are voting…” his prose would have suffered a similar fate.
Wow. To lose to a dead person who isn’t the incumbent. That’s pretty bad, even for a Republican.