Eugene Robinson on Speaker Johnson: There Is No Viable Alternative Right Now

EXCERPT:

ROBINSON: "I think probably in the end it’ll be persuasive, because, again, there is no viable alternative that any of us can think of right now, anybody else who can get to 218 votes. That said, there is no 218-vote majority in the House for an effective speaker, for a speaker who gets anything done, because that requires working with the Democrats. So let’s assume that either on a first ballot or on a subsequent ballot Mike Johnson gets re-elected as speaker. Great. Okay. Is that really first prize, or is that somewhere down the list? Because at some point, relatively soon, he’s going to be trying to pass some piece of legislation, like keeping the government open, like raising the debt ceiling, whatever. He’s going to need Democratic votes, and so he is going to get them. Again, there will be this thread. One question is, are some of the naysayers, are they demanding a rule change that would once again make it easier for them to get rid of the speaker, which just one member coming up and saying, 'You know, let’s vote him out.' He managed — Johnson managed to raise that number to I believe 9, so that gives him a little cushion. But are some members demanding that they go back to this sort of very precarious one-vote teetering situation for the speaker, which will make him even less effective?"