Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene files motion to oust Mike Johnson as House speaker

[LetMyPeopleVote]

46. Marjorie Taylor Greene files motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson

House Republicans were already a divided and dysfunctional mess. Then Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/marjorie-taylor-greene-files-motion-oust-speaker-mike-johnson-rcna144669

So what happens now? In the short term, nothing. When Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida filed his motion against McCarthy, he did so as a privileged resolution, which forced a prompt vote. Greene, however, has chosen a different path: Because her resolution isn’t privileged, we won’t see a vote for at least two weeks — members are taking a scheduled break — and it’s possible that we’ll never see a vote. (In the recent past, then-Republican Rep. Mark Meadows filed a motion to vacate against then-Speaker John Boehner, but the North Carolinian never followed through.)

“I’m not saying that it won’t happen in two weeks or it won’t happen in a month or who knows when," Greene told reporters. "But I am saying the clock has started. It’s time for our conference to choose a new speaker."

As for whether Johnson might ultimately meet McCarthy’s fate, there’s an enormous amount of uncertainty. Given the tiny GOP majority in the chamber, if Democrats were to vote against Johnson, as they did with McCarthy, it would only take a small handful of Republicans to kick the House speaker out of his office.

It’s not difficult to imagine those votes materializing — especially given the ferocity of the House Freedom Caucus’ criticisms of Johnson — but whether Democrats intend go along with such an effort remains an open question.

While the fight takes shape, let’s not miss the forest for the trees. Resignations in the GOP-led chamber have reached a generational high. Legislative progress has slowed to a pace unseen in nearly a century. Lawmakers are struggling mightily to complete basic tasks. Johnson organized a retreat focused on unifying his conference, and most of his members didn’t show up. A recent Punchbowl News report concluded, “This is the most chaotic, inefficient and ineffective majority we’ve seen in decades covering Congress.”

It’s against this backdrop that one of the House’s most notorious extremists has launched an effort to oust her party’s speaker — six months after other radical GOP members successfully ousted his predecessor.

I wrote a book a few years ago about Republicans abandoning their role as a governing party. It’s good to see so many GOP officials take steps to prove the thesis true.