Speaker's Circus Act Wows the Crowd !
* But let's give credit where it's due. Thank you, Mr. Jeffries and President Biden *
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Speaker Johnson chooses the most complicated path to a simple result.
On February 13, the U.S Senate passed the National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 815), commonly known as the Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan aid package, by a vote of 70 - 29. The bill provides about $60 billion in military support for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $2 billion for Taiwan, and $9 billion of humanitarian assistance for civilians in war zones.
At the time, there was general agreement that HR 815 enjoyed the support of well over 300 Representatives in the House. That’s about 70% of the total membership of 435. In a normally functioning legislative body, within a week or so the leader of the chamber would have brought the bill to the floor for a vote. It would have easily passed and become law with the President’s signature.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was explicit:
"As Democrats, we're willing, ready, able to find bipartisan common ground with the other side of the aisle whenever and wherever possible, in order to make life better for the American people. That's our job. . . . Standing by Ukraine is standing by America's national security interests. And that's why it should be done, in a bipartisan way. And we're calling upon the Republican leadership in our House to just put the bill on the floor for an up or down vote."
—Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, February 21, 2024
But that did not happen. Almost immediately after the Senate passed HR 815, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) let it be known that he would not bring the bill up for a vote. Echoing criticism from MAGA extremists and the Freedom Caucus he complained that it lacks any “real border security provisions.” As we know now, this was always nothing more than another delaying tactic. Strong border security provisions were summarily rejected when proposed for an earlier version of HR 815.
Of far more concern than border security were the threats emanating from MAGA quarters that if Mike Johnson were to support any military assistance for Ukraine, he’d be subject to an immediate motion to vacate the chair.
Again, Leader Jeffries was explicit:
“It does seem to me, based on informal conversations, that were Speaker Johnson to do the right thing relative to meeting the significant national security needs of the American people by putting it on the floor for an up-or-down vote, there will be a reasonable number of people in the House Democratic Caucus who will take the position that he should not fall as a result." —Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, February 28, 2024
Despite Leader Jeffries’ reassurance, Mr. Johnson turned his attention to other matters. He let the aid package languish week after week, all the while ignoring urgent warnings that Ukraine’s effort to defend itself was being seriously hampered by a lack of sustained American military assistance. Russian attacks intensified, Ukrainian forces were being pushed back, air defenses were crippled by ammunition shortages and President Zelensky was diverted from wartime duties by the necessity of touring allied capitols to beg for support.
Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the top U.S. general overseeing military operations in Europe summed up the situation in stark terms:
“The side that can’t shoot back loses.”
During his State of the Union address on March 7, President Biden was also explicit:
“If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not. But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking.
. . .But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world.
. . .I say this to Congress: we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Bill.” —President Joe Biden, March 7, 2024
More than three weeks later, having just attended church on Easter Sunday March 31, the Speaker declared that he’d finally seen the light:
“After praying on it, I’ve decided to bring the Ukraine aid package to the floor of the House as soon as we reconvene in a week. Moses stepped up to confront tyranny in his day, and I’m going to follow his example. We can’t sit on our hands and just offer thoughts and prayers as brave men and women fight for freedom.”
Mr. Johnson did not explain why he had waited for seven weeks to pray on the matter. Nor did he seem to appreciate the irony of comparing his leadership to that of Moses, who “confront(ed) tyranny” by leading his people into the desert to wander lost for 40 years. (BTW, what does Moses have to do with Easter?)
In any case, he did not “bring the Ukraine aid package to the floor of the House as soon as we reconvene in a week,” which would have been on April 9. Once again he prioritized other issues.
First there was the question of reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — a problem lingering from the Speaker’s decision in February to consider the matter “at a later date.” Then there was the entirely performative spectacle of presenting articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to the Senate.
Meanwhile, amid growing impatience among Democrats and traditional Republicans with Speaker Johnson’s slow-walking of the aid package, a discharge petition to bring the Senate-passed HR 815 to the floor had garnered 195 signatures (of 218 needed for passage). All but one of these were Democrats, so only 24 Republicans would need to sign on to make the Speaker’s recalcitrance irrelevant.
After Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Saturday April 13, the Washington Post reported that a substantial number of Republicans “have privately said they would sign onto the Democratic petition . . . if far-right Republicans block the conference from backing whatever Johnson proposes.” Other sources confirmed this to be the general consensus of opinion among congressional aides. Judging by the fact that 101 Republicans ultimately voted for Ukraine aid, it’s fair to conclude that more than two dozen were prepared to sign the discharge petition by that weekend.
On Sunday, Leader Jeffries made yet another plea to Speaker Johnson, this time in a post on X:
“The world is on fire. We should stand with our Democratic allies and push back against the enemies of freedom. The House must pass the bipartisan national security bill. Tomorrow.” —Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, April 14, 2024
Still there was nothing from Mr. Johnson, until four days later. On April 18, less than 48 hours before the onset of yet another congressional recess, the Speaker unveiled his four-part (or potentially five) Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan aid package. The package, now identified as HR 8034, 8035, 8036 and 8038, is essentially the same as HR 815. Except it’s been broken into pieces so that members can vote only for the sections they favor.
In other words, the end result is that the entire package eventually passed the House on April 20 just as it would have if HR 815 had been brought to the floor back in February. But instead of going directly to President Biden to be signed into law, the set of bills must now go back to the Senate for another vote. After two months of pointless delay, the measure will wait yet another several days for the Senate to take it up. And all the while, the war grinds on.
There’s been a lot of media cheering for Speaker Johnson’s finally having “done the right thing” here. Some have even compared his belated advocacy for Ukraine to Mike Pence’s defiance of Donald Trump on January 6, or to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger’s defiance of MAGA Republicans to serve on the January 6 commission. But while passage of the aid package is a good thing, all this unnecessary and convoluted legislative maneuvering is not remotely equivalent to the principled stands taken by Pence, Cheney and Kinzinger.
To the contrary, Mr. Johnson has failed to decisively confront the radical MAGA faction time and again. While he prevaricated, Ukrainians needlessly suffered additional casualties, severe infrastructure damage, and morale-crushing battlefield losses.
Even after Minority Leader Jeffries and President Biden had effectively immunized him from MAGA threats to his position as Speaker he avoided facilitating passage of this crucial piece of legislation. Only when it became clear that his procrastination had become intolerable to the vast majority of House membership, and that HR 815 would be headed to the floor via discharge petition, did he introduce the four-part aid package for which he now claims credit. But it was his only option, lest he be relegated to utter irrelevance.
Make no mistake. This is not a profile in courage.
Dr. Kristin Lyerly is running to replace Mike Gallagher
Announces candidacy in Wisconsin’s 8th district.
In our April 2 post, Another Defeat for Maga Extremists , we noted with some disappointment that Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) has resigned. While Mr. Gallagher is a conservative Republican who holds policy positions which most members of the Feathers of Hope network do not support, we also noted that:
“He is a serious legislator, comfortable working with Democrats to address our country’s challenges. His successor representing the usually reliable Republican 8th district is likely to be more closely aligned with MAGA extremists. So unless Democrats can pull off an upset, we’ll have to count this resignation as a Win for them.”
But in a more hopeful vein, we added this:
Note: An upset is not an unrealistic expectation. The 8th district includes Wisconsin’s third and sixth most populous cities: Green Bay and Appleton. Both voted 51% - 48% for progressive Janet Protasiewicz for Supreme Court last year. Also, the district went for Obama by 54% in 2008.
Democrats didn’t even field a candidate in the 8th district last cycle. This year Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN pro-choice activist, is likely to make the run. With access to abortion enjoying majority support even among Republicans, Dr. Lyerly could possibly flip the seat. She has not yet formally announced her candidacy.
Since then Dr. Lyerly has announced that she is running and is currently gathering the requisite number of signatures to be the Democratic candidate in November. So far she is the only Democrat to announce.
Since Mr. Gallagher’s resignation, both Marjorie Tayler Greene (R-GA) and Donald Trump have made appearances in the 8th district, indicating that Republicans expect a hard-fought campaign there. This is definitely an opportunity for Democrats to pick-up what had been considered a “safe” GOP seat.
To help support Kristin Lyerly’s campaign, visit her website: www.KristinForWisconsin.com
This is a network of ordinary citizens. In a democracy, we exercise our power by raising our voices. To be silent is to be powerless.
Do NOT give Johnson one iota of credit for this!! Purely political. He KNOWS his party is no more, and that they face annihilation this November. He's trying to salvage as many ignorant votes as he can. This was not a "Come to Jesus" moment, it was a "We're screwed", and nothing more. He's been getting flooded with calls and emails telling him what's waiting for him in the afterlife, due to all the blood on his hands. His tail is planted firmly between his legs, where his balls used to be.
Yes, thank Jeffries and Biden. The Democrats are showing HOW democratic principles work. When a disqualified, impeached, insurrectionist, "pretends" to be a leader by bullying, threats, falsehoods, those who follow him do not represent us.