New House Speaker Mike Johnson is already tying Washington in new partisan knots.
The Republican majority’s rookie leader is painting deep red conservative lines on the blank page of his career in top-level politics, staking out a risky showdown with Democrats and even Senate Republicans over Israel funding that could either build his power base or fracture his authority from the start.
Johnson’s tactics suggest that he is either likely to be as much a hostage to hard-right conservatives as his predecessor Kevin McCarthy was – or that, as one of them himself, he is resolved to use his tenure to stoke fresh chaos and confrontation.
His decision to seek huge cuts to Internal Revenue Service funding to pay for a $14 billion emergency aid package to Israel shows that even an ally fighting an existential war is not immune from the stunt politics of a House GOP that spends more time pleasing conservative media than running the country. The Louisiana Republican is also opening new wounds in the GOP. His refusal to accept President Joe Biden’s request to tie together aid to Israel and Ukraine also set up a confrontation with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, raising the prospect of a new round of Republican-on-Republican tension following three weeks of internal feuding over the speakership.
Johnson’s willingness to stage the first battle of his tenure over the Israel package will also burn precious time just over two weeks ahead of a possible government shut down if new federal funding isn’t approved. His muscle flexing may be an attempt to build political capital among hardliners as he positions himself for the far bigger funding fight in which he could face the kind of painful concessions to keep the government open that toppled McCarthy. But if he pushes McConnell and the Democratic-run Senate too far, he could create new enemies animosity that will shape…
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