I’m one of the few here who isn’t inclined to be too hard on Johnson. He’s a legislative leader, not an executive. How do you “play hardball” with two factions who collectively comprise at least 80% of the House members?
He’s in a very difficult spot, but, he made a pledge, repeatedly, to not bring a Ukraine bill forward that did not include US border wall funding.
This is 100x worse than what McCarthy supposedly did, which was to not let Gaerz read some bill 48 hours in advance. It was actually the LAST bill we’ve seen that actually CUT government spending, but was abandoned thereafter.
That's the paradigm that Republicans are stuck in, and that needs to be changed.
As I just posted above, our side is stuck playing intramural ball while Democrats are coordinating across both the House and the Senate. Democrats see the "team" being the entire Congressional caucus, while Republicans see the House and Senate as being completely different leagues.
I put the blame for this on the Senate, and especially on McConnell. It's McConnell who won't work with Johnson (or even McCarthy before him). McConnell sees himself as the master deal-maker who needs nobody else's help. If only the best of both chambers would work to strategize together to counter the Democrats, we'd be in a much better place.
Because McConnell looks down on the House, the House is forced to look within itself to get by, and this limits our ability to get things done. Suddenly, factions inside the House become over-powered and we begin fighting amongst ourselves instead of aligning with the Senate before the game starts to have a unified game plan to move the ball forward.
-PJ