House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is avoiding his "basic duties" as he navigates a wave of lawmaker scandals, David Graham wrote for The Atlantic.
Nothing demonstrates this more clearly, Graham noted, than Johnson's explanation for why his leadership pushed out Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) following an Ethics Committee report of his serial harassment of female staffers, but is staying out of the horrific domestic abuse allegations sinking Rep. Max Miller (R-OH).
“There’s all sorts of domestic events going on with 435 members of Congress all the time. It’s not my business to get engaged in it,” said Johnson.
"This raises the question of what Johnson does think the speaker’s business is," said Graham. "One might imagine that the Miller situation would concern Johnson for several reasons. Johnson positions himself as a staunch social conservative and defender of morality; Miller has been accused of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and toddler daughter, and of illegal drug use."
Meanwhile, said Graham, the whole episode is "a big distraction from any midterm messaging that the Republican Party might wish to do in the last 100 days before elections" and if Miller refuses to allow the Ohio GOP to replace him on the ballot, it takes a generally safe Republican seat and makes it genuinely competitive.
"If Johnson doesn’t think that his job includes protecting the moral reputation of the House, his small and endangered House majority, or the prospects of the Republican Party more broadly, he must have some other idea about his role," wrote Graham. "What that might be is mysterious," he added, since Johnson's caucus has also passed historically low quantities of legislation.
Miller, for his part, has requested his own Ethics Committee probe this week in what critics call a stalling tactic, and has denied the abuse allegations while admitting past illegal drug use, though he says he's since stopped. He also claimed on CNN that "Speaker Mike Johnson, everyone else — they're standing behind me."