Speaker Johnson - Media and Democratic Whingeing

[GURPS]

CNN Concedes 'Hugely Conservative' Johnson Isn't 'The Devil Incarnate'​

Before Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson officially became Speaker of the House on Wednesday, there was the seven-person pre-game panel on CNN’s Inside Politics. One of those panelists, senior political analyst Gloria Borger, was forced to concede that despite being “hugely conservative,” Johnson is “not the devil incarnate.”

Borger’s remarks as she recalled Reps. Jim Jordan and Tom Emmer’s failed bids, “I think he is a person who’s hard to demonize. You know, it's very easy to demonize somebody like a Jim Jordan, who’s a fire brand. He's out there and fighting and then Donald Trump can demonize an [Tom] Emmer because he didn't believe the election was rigged.”

No doubt, CNN is already busy trying to figure out how they can change that so they can include Johnson in that list, but for the moment, Borger continued, “But you had this kind, I don’t use the word milquetoast, that's not quite the right word, he's a serious person, who is not prone to getting in big, huge fights with people. He is known as a listener, I was told. He is hugely conservative, but he doesn't wear it on his sleeve all the time. So he can get along with moderates and listen to them and it will be interesting to see what happens with Ukraine aid, for example, but he’s not the devil incarnate.”

 

[GURPS]

Democrats Melt Down After GOP Conference Unanimously Elects Mike Johnson Speaker​

Democrats in Congress expressed their deep displeasure with Johnson securing the Speaker’s gavel on the first ballot, after three weeks of chaos since Speaker Emeritus Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) ouster, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) called Johnson an “insurrectionist.”

“Insurrectionist Mike Johnson is now second in line to the presidency. The American people deserve better,” she said.

Similarly, after Johnson won the gavel, Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN) labeled him a “MAGA Extremist” and wrote that his “achievements” include seeking an “abortion ban” and voting “against LGBTQ+ rights.”

“With this choice, Republicans have embraced the extreme MAGA playbook,” she added.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) contended that the “GOP succumbed to the radical wing of their party.”

“Johnson is a MAGA extremist who helped fuel the January 6 insurrection, believes women and the LGBTQ community don’t deserve rights, and is another puppet to Donald Trump,” he wrote in an emailed press release.

Other prominent Democrats, including Reps. Adam Schiff (R-CA), who is running against Porter for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) old seat, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took to X to share their dismay ahead of the vote when Johnson’s prospects looked very favorable.

Schiff discouraged voters from doing their own research and googling the new Speaker.

Let me make it simple: Johnson is a hard-right, pro-Trump, leading election denier in the House,” he wrote. “Sadly, this is what passes for Speaker material in the Republican conference.’

“Introducing extremist GOP Speaker nominee Mike Johnson,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez. “He was a key architect of the Jan 6th strategy to overturn the US election.”

 

[GURPS]

Democrats rev up the opposition machine against Mike Johnson​

Democrats began rolling out talking points minutes into his speakership, attacking him in hopes of retaking the House in 2024.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent a memo on “messaging guidance” to House Democrats on Wednesday outlining their strategy.

“House Republicans may be breathing a short-sighted sigh of relief now that they’ve elected a new Speaker,” it read, “but their decision to elevate an anti-abortion extremist who has pushed to gut Social Security and Medicare and who was one of the main architects of the illegal attempt to overturn the 2020 election will lose them the majority in 2024.”


The DCCC added in its dispatch that it “is committed to ensuring that every battleground member of the Republican conference is tied to Speaker Johnson’s” record.

 

[GURPS]

Mike Johnson Strongly Supports Impeachment Inquiry into Joe Biden​

During a September House floor speech, Johnson eloquently articulated three reasons to justify the inquiry initially launched by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA):

There are three irrefutable facts that have taken us to this point: Number one, President Biden lied directly to the American people. Number two, President Biden’s family and their associates profited millions through shell companies. Number three, President Biden’s federal agencies are stonewalling our legitimate congressional inquiry.

Johnson, who served as vice chairman of the House Republican Conference and on the House Judiciary Committee, noted those facts are “just the tip of the iceberg”:

There are so many scandals; there’s so much corruption that’s been uncovered. Every stone that we overturn leads to more and more corruption. And because of that, Mr. Speaker, a lot of the American people are simply getting lost in the barrage of evidence, in the barrage of allegations of corruption and the evidence itself.

After defining key points in the investigation, Johnson also slammed the media for covering up the scandal. “And as expected, the D.C. and the national press corps have blindly accepted the White House’s spin, and they’re trying to convince the American people that our inquiry, even the impeachment inquiry, is illegitimate.” He then mocked several headlines written by establishment media outlets about the sandal:

From CNN, “The most predictable impeachment investigation in American history.” From Reuters, “McCarthy opens Long Shot impeachment probe of Biden.” From MSNBC, “McCarthy’s Biden impeachment inquiry is the Benghazi investigation on steroids.” These headlines are going to increase. We know what’s coming.

 

[GURPS]

Not surprisingly, the chief Democrat/media complaint about Johnson is that he is pro-life and a so-called "election denier," the latter of which House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a 2016 election denier, took a shot at prior to handing over the gavel to Johnson earlier Wednesday.

“Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. He’s doing a great job under difficult circumstances — and no amount of election denialism will ever change that reality," Jeffries declared.

But though they'll try their best, Democrats are going to have a tough time painting Johnson into the "extremist" corner, a point made by CNN left-wing political analyst Gloria Borger in the lead-up to the vote:

"You know, I think he is a person who’s hard to demonize. You know, it's very easy to demonize somebody like a Jim Jordan, who’s a firebrand. He's out there, he's fighting. And then Donald Trump can demonize an Emmer because he didn't believe the election was rigged.
But you had this kind of, I don’t use the word 'milquetoast,' that's not quite the right word, he's a serious person, who is not prone to getting in big, huge fights with people. He is known as a listener, I was told. He is hugely conservative, but he doesn't wear it on his sleeve all the time. So he can get along with moderates and listen to them. And it will be interesting to see what happens with Ukraine aid, for example. But, you know, he’s not the devil incarnate."

WATCH: CNN Political Analyst Accidentally Reveals the Real Reason Democrats Don’t Like Mike Johnson

redstate.com

For Fox Sake ...... REPORT THE ****ING NEWS

 

[Kyle]

How generous. CNN’s @GloriaBorger frets @RepMikeJohnson is “hard to demonize” and though he’s “hugely conservative” she concedes “he’s not the devil incarnate.”

Guaranteed, Every Demoncrat will find a way and do so.

 

[GURPS]

WHO’S HE?​

The embarrassing impasse in the House of Representatives has finally ended, as Louisiana’s Mike Johnson has been elected Speaker. So, who is Mike Johnson, and why was he finally able to succeed where several more notable House members failed?
I suspect that the answer has more to do with desperation than anything else. The Republican Party was made to look ridiculous, not so much by the party’s divisions as by the utter lack of party loyalty and discipline that was revealed by one failed vote after another. Most likely, Republicans coalesced behind Johnson–a little-known commodity, who has never been a committee chairman–to stop the bleeding.
John Fund offers more in the New York Post:

There are famously Five Families warring inside the House Republican tent: the Tea Party-influenced House Freedom Caucus, the conservative Republican Study Committee, business-oriented Chamber of Commerce types, the moderate Republican Governance Group and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
So how did Johnson get them temporarily to agree on electing him?
He belongs to the Freedom Caucus and used to chair the Republican Study Committee, nailing down his right flank.
His leadership position as House Republican Conference vice chairman meant he had personal relationships with many moderate members, who liked his low-key style and his willingness to listen to them. And he has demonstrated an interest in the details of legislation, impressing other members expert in tax, budget and defense issues.
It also didn’t escape the notice of MAGA members that he had served on the defense team in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020.

Then there is this, which I like:

Finally, Johnson has formidable communication skills. A constitutional lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, he has years of experience arguing cases in federal court. He was also a college professor and conservative talk-show host.

 

[GURPS]

 

[spr1975wshs]

One of the pro-2A folks I view on YouTube. Video collection of Speaker Johnson at work.

 

[vraiblonde]

If the Democrats don't think a Republican is the Devil incarnate, then I hate that Republican.\

We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher.

 

[WingsOfGold]

He adopted a black kid, that's one they can't use against him.

 

[GURPS]

He adopted a black kid, that's one they can't use against him.

sure they will black kids should be raised by black parents

 

[Kyle]

sure they will black kids should be raised by black parents

He be tryna makem ack wite and ####!

 

[Merlin99]

I always find it amusing when the D's screw the pooch with their maliciousness. Kevin McCarthy was working with them (I know, Booo, Hiss) and all it would have taken for them to keep him in place would have been to do nothing, but instead 100% lock step against him. Now they have their worst nightmare in place and their ready to go out and start howling at the moon again.

 

[WingsOfGold]

sure they will black kids should be raised by black parents

If he were sincere he would change his race

 

[GURPS]

Speaker Mike Johnson's Christianity Sends the Left Into Fits of Rage​

It's times like these that I wish there wasn't a legal requirement to link to the source of an excerpt because absolutely no one should give David Corn and his awful site a click. Here's a bit of what was written.

Rep. Mike Johnson, the newly elected Republican House speaker, used to conduct a seminar in churches premised on the idea that the United States is a “Christian nation.” This ministry, as he has referred to it, is yet more evidence that Johnson is committed to a hardcore Christian fundamentalism that shapes his views of politics and government.
The seminar, titled “Answers for Our Times: Government, Culture, and Christianity,” was organized by Onward Christian Education Services, Inc., a company owned by his wife, Kelly Johnson, a Christian counselor and anti-abortion activist who calls herself a “leader in the pro-family movement.” The website for her counseling service—which was taken down shortly after Johnson became speaker—described the seminar, which featured both her and Johnson, as exploring several questions, such as, “What is happening in America and how do we fix it?” The list includes this query: “Can our heritage as a Christian nation be preserved?” There were different versions of the seminar running from two-hour-long lectures to retreats lasting two days.

I'm literally shaking at the thought of having a Speaker who holds traditional Christian values. Clearly, the nation has done so well with a focus on secularism and the idea that absolutely anything goes, including men becoming women and killing babies in the womb until birth.

I mean, it's not like the United States is suffering from an epidemic of fentanyl overdoses largely driven by young, listless men who feel no purpose in their lives. What people actually need is more hedonism and less Christian-based outreach. To do anything else might result in a more joyful, ordered society where people raise families, value life, and treat each other with respect. We just can't have that.

 

[GURPS]

 

[Kyle]

 

[Clem72]

“Insurrectionist Mike Johnson is now second in line to the presidency. The American people deserve better,” she said.

How can anyone be taken seriously when they whine about something that has never happened in the history of our country?

 

[SamSpade]

He's simply stating what is actually very specifically laid out, in the New Testament.

Romans 13:1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God

And the next several verses that follow, vs 2-7, same chapter.

1 Peter 2:13-14, 17 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right...........17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

It DOES NOT make the claim that God put them there because they're righteous - when Peter wrote that, the emperor was NERO, who had a habit of slaughtering Christians. It doesn't mean that God put them there because they're the good guys - or that God removes them for the same reason. As I understand the concept in the New Testament, the underlying premise is - obey the laws, pay your taxes, be such good citizens that when people accuse you of wrongdoing - they've got nothing.

And Bill Kristol is one of those past day punditry - someone who USED TO appear on panels and shows, but not so much now - who thinks he is far smarter than he is. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he was completely ignorant of this part of the Bible, and probably hasn't learned about it since his remarks.