Andrew wrote:

*****[Speaker Mike Johnson] knows how short his leash is among the anti-Ukraine MAGA hardliners. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has already filed a motion to vacate him as speaker, although she hasn’t yet taken steps to force a vote on it. She’s made it clear that she’d pull that trigger if Johnson moves forward on Ukraine. If she does—if anyone does—it’s basically over for Johnson: Any two Republican defections would doom him, assuming Democrats don’t bail him out, and Democrats bailing him out would doom any future he has in GOP politics too.*****

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This "Any two Republican defections would doom him, assuming Democrats don't bail him out" dynamic is very interesting to me.

Mike Johnson is awful. Kevin McCarthy was awful. That Democrats would be loath to support either rather than help engineer an opportunity to vote for Leader Hakeem Jeffries to be the next speaker is entirely understandable.

The question arises, though: Can one locate virtue in a decision to empower MTG and others of the very worst elements of the Republican conference in their efforts to hand Ukraine to Putin? Can one be proud of that uncompromising stance?

As it happens, Democrats need not commit to vote for Johnson in order to give him the confidence he needs to do the right thing with regard to Ukraine. They can simply commit in sufficient numbers to be absent from the vote on the motion to vacate, thereby giving the relatively(!) less objectionable members of the Republican conference sufficient heft as a proportion of the whole House present and voting to ensure that Johnson is rewarded for doing the right thing rather than punished.

I recognize that against this scenario is another plausible one. Upon the success of the motion to vacate, sufficient numbers of relatively(!) less objectionable members of the Republican conference could absent themselves from the next vote for a new speaker so as to hand the gavel to Rep. Jeffries.

The point is, we do not get to that scenario if, fearing his ejection, Johnson does the WRONG thing with regard to Ukraine.

And if Johnson does that wrong thing and Putin gets his bloody prize, will Democrats' consciences feel even the slightest prick?