The Week: A New Speaker

• The real winner, of course, is Patrick McHenry.

• Sometimes sitting fourth in line is just the right place to be. Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana became the new speaker of the House after every high- or even medium-profile candidate flamed out. He had few enemies and was not suspected of knifing any of the prior contenders. With those advantages, he made getting elected speaker look easy after weeks of chaos. Johnson, who practiced as an attorney before serving in the Louisiana legislature and getting elected to Congress in 2016, is a talented man and staunch social conservative. But his conduct after the 2020 election, when he organized his fellow Republicans to urge the Supreme Court to throw out the results, is a black mark on his record. He now has an enormous political, legislative, and fundraising challenge ahead of him, with another potential government shutdown looming and the same nihilistic forces that toppled Kevin McCarthy waiting in the wings. That said, it’s a good thing that House Republicans have ended their flagrant display of dysfunction. The speaker is dead, long live the speaker—let’s hope for longer than nine months this time.

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• The real winner, of course, is Patrick McHenry.

• Sometimes sitting fourth in line is just the right place to be. Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana became the new speaker of the House after every high- or even medium-profile candidate flamed out. He had few enemies and was not suspected of knifing any of the prior contenders. With those advantages, he made getting elected speaker look easy after weeks of chaos. Johnson, who practiced as an attorney before serving in the Louisiana legislature and getting elected to Congress in 2016, is a talented man and staunch social conservative. But his conduct after the 2020 election, when he organized his fellow Republicans to urge the Supreme Court to throw out the results, is a black mark on his record. He now has an enormous political, legislative, and fundraising challenge ahead of him, with another potential government shutdown looming and the same nihilistic forces that toppled Kevin McCarthy waiting in the wings. That said, it’s a good thing that House Republicans have ended their flagrant display of dysfunction. The speaker is dead, long live the speaker—let’s hope for longer than nine months this time.