Chaotic House Republican majority shrivels again as Johnson faces motion to vacate

The Repub­li­can-ruled U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives has once again become a bro­ken home, with a promis­ing law­mak­er decid­ing to leave before his cur­rent term ends and the lat­est House Speak­er, Mike John­son, on the ropes.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Gal­lagher, R‑Wisconsin announced he will quit Con­gress on April 19th, reduc­ing the Repub­li­cans to a one-vote major­i­ty. A fel­low Repub­li­can, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ken Buck of Col­orado, who has bucked Trump, was clear­ing out his office after cast­ing his last vote.

As the. House passed a $1.2 tril­lion appro­pri­a­tions bill — on the strength of Demo­c­ra­t­ic votes — ultra MAGA Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene, R‑Georgia, was on the Capi­tol steps announc­ing a motion to vacate the Speaker’s office. A major­i­ty of House Repub­li­cans had just vot­ed against the bill, described by Speak­er John­son as “the best achiev­able out­come in a divid­ed government.”

We should take notice out in this Wash­ing­ton. If Democ­rats flip the House in Novem­ber, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith, D‑Wash., will again chair the House Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rick Larsen will like­ly chair the House Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Suzan Del­Bene will reap the ben­e­fits of chair­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Con­gres­sion­al Cam­paign Committee.

FNC loves to run Democ­rats-in-Dis­ar­ray head­lines. But House Repub­li­cans have formed an unri­valed cir­cu­lar fir­ing squad, with mount­ing casu­al­ties. The most divi­sive mem­bers of their cau­cus are favored guests of such Fox hosts as Sean Han­ni­ty and Lau­ra Ingraham.

Ultra MAGA extrem­ists purged House Speak­er Kevin McCarthy, him­self a stri­dent par­ti­san, last fall for dar­ing to do a deal pre­vent­ing a gov­ern­ment shut­down. McCarthy sub­se­quent­ly quit Con­gress. A spe­cial elec­tion for his Cal­i­for­nia seat, wide­ly con­sid­ered safe Repub­li­can turf, is slat­ed lat­er this spring.

Buck bailed out in dis­gust at col­leagues’ mal­adroit effort to impeach Pres­i­dent Biden. Dit­to Gal­lagher, one of three Repub­li­cans to vote against impeach­ing Home­land Secu­ri­ty Sec­re­tary Ale­jan­dro May­orkas. The result leaves Repub­li­cans with 217 seats in the 435-mem­ber House.

The House has begun a two-week East­er recess, so the ear­li­est Greene can bring up her motion is April 8th. She was coy on tim­ing Fri­day, telling reporters: “It’s more a warn­ing than a pink slip. We need a new Speaker.”

But Greene, a lime­light seek­er on a par with Cinderella’s step­sis­ters, added: “The clock has start­ed. It’s time for our con­fer­ence to pick a new leader.”

The abil­i­ty to gov­ern is the acid test of pol­i­tics, but acid rain is falling on the “people’s house.” But ultra MAGA extrem­ists do not know how to gov­ern and do not want to govern.

Years ago in Cal­i­for­nia, Ronald Rea­gan insti­tut­ed a com­mand­ment in his par­ty; “Though shalt not speak ill of any Republican.”

Well, that was then. In today’s House, even the cra­zies are at each oth­er’s throats. Greene was a McCarthy boost­er, hav­ing sold her sup­port for good com­mit­tee assign­ments. She took out after Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Matt Gaetz, R‑Florida, who brought the motion against the Speak­er. In turn, on Fri­day, Gaetz was back­ing John­son and lay­ing into Greene.

If John­son sur­vives a vote to vacate the Speaker’s office, he will need sup­port from the chamber’s 213 Democ­rats, soon to be 214 after a safe­ly Demo­c­ra­t­ic seat is filled by a spe­cial elec­tion in New York. (With Gal­lagher and Buck leav­ing, four for­mer­ly Repub­li­can seats are cur­rent­ly or soon vacant.)

Hav­ing spent years secur­ing cov­et­ed posi­tions in the House, promi­nent fig­ures are soon to leave. House Appro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee Chair Kay Granger, R‑Texas, is quit­ting her com­mit­tee post and not seek­ing reelec­tion. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers, R‑Washington, chair of the House Ener­gy and Com­merce Com­mit­tee, is hang­ing it up. So is Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Patrick McHen­ry, R‑North Car­oli­na, chair of the House Finan­cial Ser­vices Committee.

Gal­lagher, 39, is already a four-term vet­er­an and chair of the House Select Com­mit­tee on Com­mu­nist Chi­na. He had just steered pas­sage of leg­is­la­tion to force ByteDance to divest TikTok. 

He said lit­tle about leav­ing ear­ly, only that he’s doing so “after con­ver­sa­tions with my fam­i­ly.” Under Wis­con­sin law, his seat will not be filled until the Novem­ber election.

Once known for bloody lead­er­ship wars, House Democ­rats vot­ed with near uni­ty under Speak­er Emeri­ta Nan­cy Pelosi and — with a thin major­i­ty — suc­ceed­ed in pass­ing major leg­is­la­tion such as the Amer­i­can Res­cue Act and the Infla­tion Reduc­tion Act in the first two years of the Biden-Har­ris administration.

The uni­ty has con­tin­ued under Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Hakeem Jef­fries, D‑New York, picked unan­i­mous­ly as Pelosi’s suc­ces­sor as Demo­c­ra­t­ic leader.

By con­trast, on Fri­day, 100 House Repub­li­cans sup­port­ed the big appro­pri­a­tions bill while 109 opposed it. One “nay” vote came from Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers.