House Republicans are revolting against their speaker—again

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is facing a revolt from inside his own party. Again.

This time, the subject of the uprising is a continuing resolution aimed at extending government funding past the end of September. While Republicans are always gleeful about holding a gun to the government’s head, bringing services to a halt just one month before the election seems to many like a bad idea. Even so, House Republicans thought this would be a great time to engage in a big political stunt by slipping into the funding legislation a poison pill aimed at addressing the nonexistent threat of noncitizen voting. 

Now Johnson finds himself in a trap. A group of the most obstinate Republicans are trying to use this opportunity to force Johnson into cutting government funding. He can’t get his own party to go along with his leadership, and he can’t go begging to Democrats because the proof-of-citizenship stunt makes this legislation untouchable. 

Somewhere, ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy is smiling.