The political center in both parties is pushing back more against the fringes on the far right and the far left, reflecting the weariness and exasperation with the threats to boot Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) out of his job and the ongoing clashes with pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses across the country.
The overwhelming vote in the House for a foreign package including funding for Ukraine was a rebuke to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who is now running into bipartisan opposition as she threatens to force a snap leadership election in the House.
Johnson made it clear he had run out of patience with hard-line conservative critics when he put the Ukraine funding bill on the floor and shrugged off warnings that it could cost him his job.
House Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that Greene’s efforts to pressure Johnson are falling flat with their constituents back home.
In a remarkable development, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) announced that he and other Democrats would step in to help Johnson defeat any motion offered by conservatives to vacate his position.
“I think people are sick and tired of chaos and dysfunction. So I congratulate all of our friends on both sides of the aisle in the House for … actually doing their job instead of all of the sideshow,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate leadership team.
“Republicans are by and large tired of all the antics and the chaos, and they realize it’s a political liability,” he added.
Vin Weber, a GOP strategist and former member of the House Republican leadership: “We are seeing a very strong reaction against the political process by the fringes of both parties,” said.
“Even though he’s of the other party, we’re seeing in the reaction of the Democratic leader a leader,” he said of Jeffries decision to side with Johnson against the conservative insurgents in is conference.
And he praised Johnson for standing up to the critics in his conference by pushing the foreign aid package through the House, even though doing so put his job at risk.
That bold decision was validated by the strong vote its different components received from House Republicans, including 101 GOP lawmakers who voted for Ukraine funding.
“I saw the Ukraine vote as the rebellion of the normies,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP strategists.
“I just sense that you had an overwhelming bipartisan majority in both chambers that are tired of having their lives run and ruined buy a tiny minority of the Republican conference,” he said. “None of these people get elected to go to Washington, D.C., so they can have their lives upended daily by Marjorie Taylor Greene. It’s not why they worked so hard to get to Congress or the U.S. Senate.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned last week that Greene is “dragging our brand down.”
