Who’s taken over the body of Mike Johnson?

Created
Fri, 19/04/2024 - 02:30
Updated
Fri, 19/04/2024 - 02:30
What a turnaround in just a couple of days. I’m following this very closely and I think I’ve finally lost the thread. Josh Marshall feels the same way: I don’t pretend to even understand the moving parts of how this is supposed to work. But almost out of the blue Speaker Mike Johnson has decided to go all-in on an aide package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. As this started to come into view over the last two or three days I had a number of TPM Readers write in to say, why is this happening? What’s the catch? Or why is walking the plank like this. What is he sacrificing his Speakership for? And I don’t have a really good answer. Let’s start by noting the one thing that is at least a catalyst if not the trigger: the thwarted Iranian missile attacks on Israel. That clearly changed the game for many House Republicans. Passing some Israel aid became a necessity for a number of Republicans. I assume that Johnson concluded that without assistance from at least some Democrats that too wouldn’t be possible and that he had no choice but to move ahead with Ukraine aid too. According to reports from earlier in the week, when Hakeem Jeffries was asked how Democrats should respond to Republicans asking for support on a motion to vacate, he said to tell those Republicans to sign the discharge petition. That’s the parliamentary procedure with which the signatures of a simple majority of…