Are far-right Republicans in the House about to sink Mike Johnson’s speakership?

With his background as an anti-LGBTQ+ crusader and flirtation with Christian nationalism, Mike Johnson seemed the perfect choice for speaker of the House. He could placate the far-right band that brought down former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) – and opposed every other option – because he was one of them.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

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Now Johnson has one foot on a banana peel and the other hovering over an open storm drain as he tries to maneuver through the same issue that brought down McCarthy. The government is about to run out of money, and the hard right members of the House – who constitute a small fraction of the barely-in-the-majority GOP – are demanding huge budget cuts or a complete shutdown of the federal government.

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Meanwhile, Johnson is doing the same thing McCarthy was doing. He recognized the politically devastating cost the Republicans would pay for shutting down the government, so he negotiated with Democrats to come up with a deal. Despite tremendous pushback from the right, he announced last week he’s sticking with the deal. The House has until this Friday to vote on a deal before the funding runs out.

Johnson is in a no-win situation. The right-wing, of which he was a member, lives in a fantasy world where a fraction of the entire House GOP gets to call the shots. Those shots – besides deep spending cuts, the right wants severe restrictions on the southern border – will be automatically rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate. They don’t meet with a lot of warmth from Republicans in swing districts worried about their reelection either.

Because Johnson won’t give into the hard right, its members have decided that, despite his record, he’s not really a conservative after all. According to a report in the Washington Post, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) implied that Johnson was “abandoning his far-right principles.” A “visibly frustrated” Johnson told Good that no one could challenge his credentials.

Part of Johnson’s problem is that he wants to be liked, which means he doesn’t want to make hard decisions that will antagonize people. The upshot, according to the Post, is that he has “left some lawmakers with the impression that Johnson remains too indecisive or naive for the job.”

The far-right brigade in the House is already talking about dumping Johnson. They were infuriated with him last month when he pulled anti-LGBTQ+ provisions from a defense spending bill. It’s not as if Johnson disagreed with the provisions. He just knew that Democrats would tank the spending bill if the provisions were in it. For being pragmatic, the far-right called Johnson “woke.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has already indicated she’s ready to file a motion to oust Johnson, starting the endless drama of the speakership all over again. Except, if anything, it’s gotten worse. Between resignations and illness, the GOP majority has shrunk to just three seats. It’s gotten bad enough that some Democrats have said that they would consider supporting Johnson just to keep the House functional.

Even if Johnson somehow manages to get through this round, his woes are far from over. Because of the dysfunction in Congress, government funding is once again being done as a continuing resolution, which just kicks the can down the road. The short-term funding measure would cover some federal agencies through March 1 and others through March 8. That means that Johnson would be faced with the same problem he’s facing now in less than two months.

For all his shortcomings – and that list is pretty endless – Johnson is at least trying to do the right thing in this case. He’s trying to keep the government open and keep Congress performing its duties. The problem he’s facing is that a core group of Republicans don’t agree with either of those principles.

Of course, in certain ways, Johnson doesn’t either. He’s engaged in the performative nonsense that is now the party’s brand. He’s pursuing the impeachment of President Joe Biden. He was Donald Trump’s point man in trying to overturn the 2020 election results.

Indeed, Trump may be just who Johnson needs to rescue him from his current dilemma. If Trump were to come out and demand a government shutdown, Johnson would gladly agree to it. Indeed, he has said as much. Just last week, Johnson said he was going to call Trump to “talk him through the details” of the deal. Trump had called for a shutdown last year, in the apparent hope that it would cut off funding for his criminal prosecutions.

The mainstream media likes to describe the House GOP with euphemisms like “unruly.” A better word would be “anarchastic.” There is no control, there is no organization, and there is no mission other than to burn things down. Sometimes it’s aimed at the other party, like Biden’s impeachment inquiry. But as Johnson is finding out, just as often the aim is indiscriminate and will target any moving target, Republicans included.