Oh, dear Lord, not this crazy again. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed a motion to vacate the Speaker of the House over Mike Johnson’s push for the latest omnibus spending bill.

Are we really prepared to do this all over again?

Greene filed a motion to vacate the speaker as tensions flared over a vote on a $1.2 trillion spending bill, according to The Daily Caller. Johnson spearheaded negotiations over the bill, the last chance to avoid a government shutdown.

Greene spoke out against the bill from the House floor on Monday morning.

“No Republican in the House of Representatives can in good conscience vote for this bill. It is a complete departure from all of our principles,” Greene said. She specifically mentioned provisions of the bill that deal with abortion and border security.

“This bill will absolutely destroy our majority, and will tell every single one of our voters that this majority is a failure. This is the bill that the White House cannot wait to sign into law,” she said.

Greene reportedly did not mark the resolution privileged, a procedural tool that would then require House leadership to schedule a vote on the motion within two legislative days. She may mark the resolution as privileged later, however.

MTG claims that this is a “warning” and refused to commit to a timeline to remove Speaker Johnson.

Greene, who has emerged as a top critic of Johnson since he took the gavel in October, said she would not immediately trigger a vote on ousting the Speaker — “this is basically a warning” — but she asserted she may force a referendum on his standing in the House down the road.

“Today, I filed a motion to vacate after Speaker Johnson has betrayed our conference and broken our rules,” Greene told reporters on the steps of the Capitol.

“I respect our conference; I paid all my dues to my conference; I’m a member in good standing, and I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House in chaos,” she added. “But this is basically a warning, and it’s time for us to go through the process, take our time, and find a new Speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans in our Republican majority instead of standing with the Democrats.”

Pressed on when she would force a vote on Johnson’s removal, Greene said she didn’t “have a timeline” and noted it “will be a rolling issue that we’ll be judging and making decisions by.”

“I’m not saying that it won’t happen in two weeks, or it won’t happen in a month or who knows when, but I am saying the clock has started,” Greene said. “It’s time for our conference to choose a new Speaker.”

Now, I am not and have never been a fan of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Count me among those not happy about the current spending bill and the way these crap sandwiches get shoved down our throats with the threat of a government shutdown every single time. But blaming Speaker Johnson, when he has the world’s slimmest majority in the House? Filing this motion for attention, with absolutely NO ONE waiting in the wings to take on the thankless role of herding the Republican caucus? This is nothing more than attention seeking of the highest degree for MTG, because her actions continue to cast Republicans in the role of the Stupid Party.

If the congresswoman from Georgia hasn’t noticed, we are currently in the middle of a presidential election race. I assume that MTG wants Donald Trump to win, as she has consistently supported him. I also assume that she wants Trump to win and have a Republican majority to work with in the House and the Senate. Here’s a question: how do her actions today make that goal EASIER for the Republican party? The point is to first get elected, and then have a LARGER majority to work with. Not throw the caucus into the chaos that you claim you’re trying to avoid.

The most telling part about this entire stunt by Marjorie Taylor Greene? She was a staunch supporter of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy when he was first up for the Speaker’s gavel…

Marjorie Taylor Greene runs up for a selfie with Kevin McCarthy. pic.twitter.com/HCbZXgf06Z

— Chris “Law Dork” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) January 7, 2023

… and was furious when McCarthy was ousted.
https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1732438386084806665
Was her loyalty to Kevin McCarthy personal, not political, because he put her back on House committees, after she was first removed by Democrats? It seems likely. MTG was not part of the group that voted to remove McCarthy as Speaker, and she voted for Johnson, as did all the House GOP caucus.

Again, you can be upset about the spending bill, while also realizing that Speaker Johnson has zero wiggle room when it comes to losing votes. It would be great if the Republicans had a larger majority and the leverage to pressure Joe Biden and the Senate Democrats. Better yet would be having a Republican president to work with in constructing a new budget. Even better would be some realistic admissions that entitlement spending is TWO-THIRDS of the budget and is in desperate need of reform, and we’re just ignoring that in favor of bickering over the last third. But in the meantime, this just ends up looking like a publicity stunt by Marjorie Taylor Greene, and a distraction that the Republican party and Donald Trump really don’t need right now.

Featured image: composite image of Capitol building (via JamesDeMers on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license), Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (official Congressional portrait, public domain)