'Positively lunatic' inner workings of Mike Johnson's House GOP exposed by author

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank's new book is set to be released next week and it focuses on the massive dysfunction that has taken over Republican-led House of Representatives under Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

In an excerpt published in The Post, Milbank recalls Johnson's bizarre comments that he was hearing voices directly from God about how he would become Speaker of the House. The conversation was being streamed online.

“I’ll tell you a secret, since media is not here,” Johnson began. God wasn't just "speaking" to him, in fact, God was walking him at night and giving him “plans and procedures." The voice then gave him a Moses-like job, claiming, “We’re coming to a Red Sea moment."

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According to Milbank, however, "today, Johnson’s run looks anything but heaven-sent."

Milbank also cited political scientist Tobin Grant, who tracks Congressional output over time. According to the calculations, Congress hasn't done so little since the years leading up to the Civil War. A mere 70 laws were enacted.

"But Johnson’s House isn’t merely unproductive; it is positively lunatic," Milbank writes. "Republicans have filled their committee hearings and their bills with white nationalist attacks on racial diversity and immigrants, attempts to ban abortion and to expand access to the sort of guns used in mass shootings, incessant harassment of LGBTQ Americans, and even routine potshots at the U.S. military."

He recalled the elected officials who went so far as to insult "each other’s private parts, accused each other of sexual and financial crimes, and scuffled with each other in the Capitol basement."

During the State of the Union Address, he writes, Republicans screamed curses at President Joe Biden.

"They stood up for the Confederacy and used their official powers to spread conspiracy theories about the 'Deep State,'" says Milbank. "Some even lent credence to the idea that there has been a century-old Deep State coverup of space aliens, with possible involvement by Mussolini and the Vatican."

As the election nears, the GOP is struggling to pass a bill to keep the government funded, leaving the possibility of another shutdown a month before November. Democrats want a clean continuing resolution (CR), but Republicans are attaching a bill that would change election laws mere weeks ahead of the vote. Democrats are expected to vote against it, but many Republicans refuse to support another CR over a full budget bill.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump told Johnson to shut down the government if he doesn't get the voting bill, but it's unclear if he will do it.

"I would shut down the government in a heartbeat if they don't get it and they don't get it in the bill," Trump claimed about voting restrictions being put in the budget bill.