President Grassley?

President Grassley?

To most everyone’s amazement, Mike Johnson was elected speaker on the first ballot. As promised, Thomas Massie voted against him. One member voted for Tom Emmer and another voted for Jim Jordan. But those two flipped their votes to Johnson making him speaker. I thought that Chip Roy might vote against Johnson to spite Trump who clearly dislikes Roy, but no. Roy voted for Johnson. All it took to block Johnson were two republican votes. In the end, only Massie among the republicans was in the “no” column.

So why did Johnson sail through on the first ballot and not have a repeat of the fiasco of last year? Some say it was because Trump was solidly behind Johnson. Don’t believe it. Trump wanted the debt ceiling raised and twenty “more MAGA than Trump” republicans voted against it. Surely at least one of those could have voted with Massie against Johnson who has incurred the ire of the hard right for his having to compromise with the democrats to get anything through the House that would pass the Senate. Remember that there are those in the Freedom Caucus who would like the House to pass bills that have no chance of becoming law because the Senate was majority democrat and Biden was president. Now that the Senate is in republican hands and Trump will be president, it will be interesting to see what type of legislation comes out of the House.

The real reason there was no revolt against Johnson and multiple ballots this year is fairly obvious. This year, we install a new president. The House convened on January 3. The first order of business is to elect a speaker. If no speaker elected (see Kevin McCarthy) then the representatives cannot be sworn in. If the House in not in session, then no business can be conducted. Remember McCarthy was not elected speaker until January 7. Then when he was ousted it took three more weeks for Johnson to be finally elected.

The swearing in of the House awaits the election of the speaker. If the House is not in session on January 6, the results of the Electoral College cannot be certified. If there is no certification, then Trump and Vance cannot be sworn in on January 20. If that had happened then the Constitution calls for the president pro tem of the Senate to be installed as president. That would have been 91 year old Chuck Grassley of Iowa. BTW, the president pro tem of the Senate is usually the longest serving member of the majority party.

I have nothing against Grassley, except for his blind support of ethanol. But seriously, it is clear to me why the House republicans wanted to avoid the delaying of the election of the Speaker. To do so would have triggered a set of events to show for the umpteenth time that the republicans are indeed the stupid party. But they will have plenty of opportunities over the next two years. What the republicans need to keep in mind is that if they show that they can govern and clean up the mess created by Biden, then the voters will keep them in office. More likely, they will screw things up and lose the House in two years, creating more discord in the party and throwing a wrench in the Trump agenda. It will be interesting to watch.