Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

It’s Mike Johnson of Louisiana who, as one example of his profound unsuitability, brags that he doesn’t believe that human beings cause the climate crisis, though his home state has been ravaged by it.

That means that the official second in line to the presidency “violated his oath to the constitution and tried to disenfranchise four states”, as the writer Marcy Wheeler neatly put it.

Whatever his shortcomings, we know that Johnson excels at one thing: pleasing Donald Trump, the autocrat wannabe and Republican party leader who loves nothing more than a good yes man.

This, of course, follows weeks of chaos for the House Republicans, who put up three better-known nominees – Steve Scalise, another Louisianan, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Tom Emmer of Minnesota – before Johnson.

For this, I suppose, we can be mildly grateful since Jordan is an especially awful person who, as Ohio State wrestling coach, reportedly looked away from credible abuse allegations by the team doctor.

The failed efforts by Scalise, Jordan and Emmer came after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy of California – no stalwart for democracy, either – who, in the end, acted a little too responsibly to satisfy the extreme right flank of his party.

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