The nasty vendetta past us, Republicans, worn out with twenty-two days of jockeying for the top House post, quickly dispatching three nominees, finally — thankfully — filled the vacated House Speaker’s Chair this afternoon by unanimously voting to elevate Congressman Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Valuable time was lost in the midst of trying to resolve the leadership crisis, to say nothing of the unattended national and international crises.
Meanwhile many are congratulating themselves for this “pathetic” display, as a retired General who led key Reagan and Bush ‘41 era missions, described it, while they dub the eight Republicans who irresponsibly vacated the Speaker’s Chair on Tuesday, October 3, heroes. They are not. Vacating the Speaker’s Chair by allying with every one of their Democrat adversaries was one of the most irresponsible acts in American political history.
But God does write straight with crooked lines and miracles do happen.
More than anything, the way in which this crisis was resolved, shows the power of Donald J. Trump, who put his finger on the scale to doom House Whip Tom Emmer’s candidacy, the third and final rejected nominee, and likewise sent Johnson’s candidacy soaring to victory.
Trump has an eye for talent and Johnson is obviously a wily and gifted pol. He will certainly have to muster all the tricks of the trade to keep his troops in line when they figure out that, like Speaker Kevin McCarthy before him, he cannot wave a magic wand and make it all better. Especially given the slim Republican majority to say nothing of his thin experience, his ‘tabula rasa’ actually being one of his strengths. Before his short stint in the Louisiana Legislature, he served for two decades as a public interest lawyer mainly representing religious liberty clients in litigation, he told C-SPAN as a new Congressman in 2017, serving as a private practice lawyer at Kitchens Law Firm in North Louisiana in addition to work for Alliance Defending Freedom.
But we should expect miracles.
Our country certainly is in such great peril, it is perhaps all we have at this point.
On a personal note, I should not even be alive tonight and writing this. On Monday morning, driving along a placid though heavily trafficked high-speed highway in the beautiful Catoctin Mountain countryside, not far from Camp David, minding my own business, a car slammed into my car on the passenger side, sending me spinning in 360 degree “drifts,” akin to what “Drift Daddy” shows (5 mins. in), and by a miracle — quite clearly — I survived, without a scratch, though my car — not a Corvette — was totaled. It took great skill, hidden talent I never realized I had.
Yes, expect miracles. Our country is about to get slammed, it seems clear, and we need Heavenly help to come out of it alive. And, for better or for worse, Speaker Mike Johnson, who fittingly began his run with a prayer, is now at the controls, with talents that God has given him for this particular moment in our history, so fraught with danger.
Mary Claire Kendall is author of Oasis: Conversion Stories of Hollywood Legends, published in Madrid under the title También Dios pasa por Hollywood. She has completed a biography about Betty Hutton, as well Oasis II, featuring six more legends of Hollywood, and is currently writing a book about the life of Ernest Hemingway viewed through the prism of faith due to be published in late 2024.