When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene formally filed a motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson 41 days ago, the Georgia Republican no doubt expected many of her far-right colleagues to rally behind her and join the cause. At least for now, that hasn’t happened: A grand total of two House GOP members have endorsed her motion to vacate gambit.
As this week got underway, many congressional Republicans were characterizing Greene’s effort as an embarrassing dud, which they preferred to see go away. Evidently, that’s not going to happen. NBC News reported:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Wednesday she will force a vote next week to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, daring Democrats and Johnson’s GOP allies to step in and save his job. Wearing a red “MAGA” hat, Greene accused Johnson, R-La., of betraying the GOP and going against conservative wishes on government funding bills, passing Ukraine aid and reauthorizing the foreign intelligence surveillance program without new warrant requirements, among other issues.
“So next week, I am going to be calling this motion to vacate,” the right-wing congresswoman said. “Absolutely calling it.”
If Greene follows through with her plan — and really, it’s difficult to say with certainty whether she will — the outcome appears certain. If every House Democrat voted to oust the incumbent GOP speaker, as they did in October when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy faced a similar challenge, then Johnson would be in real trouble.
But as things stand, it appears clear that members of the Democratic minority have a very different plan in mind: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his fellow Democratic leaders issued a statement on Tuesday announcing their intention to shield Johnson from his own radical members and prevent another round of Republican-imposed chaos on the institution.
The message to Greene, in effect, was simple: “Don’t bother with this stunt; you won’t have the votes.”
By some accounts, Democrats aren’t the only ones telling Greene what she didn’t want to hear. Politico reported this week that Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley personally lobbied the Georgian, making the case that the party won’t benefit from this election-year fight. Donald Trump himself has also expressed support for letting Johnson keep his gavel, at least for now.
As a result, Greene faced a choice: Back down and look weak, or plow forward, defy her partisan allies, and force a vote that she’d lose, at which point she’d look weak anyway.
This is precisely what happens when members, unable to think more than one move at a time, back themselves into a corner without a plan to get out. One of the most amazing things about this fight is the degree to which Democrats are the only winner. Greene is alienating her allies, many of whom have grown weary of her tiresome antics, and she’ll emerge from this ordeal — the one she chose to instigate — worse off than she was before. Johnson is likely to survive the fight, but the effort itself will leave him weakened and dependent on the Democrats he opposes. What’s more, if Republicans are able to maintain their majority after this year’s elections, it’s possible, if not likely, that he’ll struggle to keep his job in the next Congress. Members of the House’s Democratic minority, meanwhile, are sitting back, presenting themselves as the responsible grown-ups, and reinforcing a dynamic in which Congress’ top GOP official turns to them — and not radical members of his own conference — to govern for the rest of the year. For all of Greene’s over-the-top tirades about the partnership between Johnson and Jeffries, she’s the one actually helping the House minority leader.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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