I agree that The Speaker seems suddenly to have changed. Blackmail has often been discussed as a tactic used by Democrats (when you arrive in DC) I’ve been hearing those rumors for 4 decades.
I heard Johnson on Levin’s radio show, and he made a logical, reasoned, and compelling argument on how we ‘had to win’ first, to be able to do things... then I realized he made a logical, reasoned, and compelling argument- for selling out his base.
You can ‘win’ every time, if you always vote with your opponent.
The whole game is rigged, it’s a charade. The deepstate uses their time to threaten, bully, cajole, and compromise every legislator against self rule. There are about 50 they can’t get to. Not nearly enough to save the USA.