The Republican Party has been in such a state of pandemonium for so long that it's hard to imagine what new turns it can take and yet from week to week, it always does. The 2020 election tantrum and insurrection was certainly the pinnacle of Trumpish anarchy, still Republicans in the House of Representatives have been working hard to emulate their Dear Leader ever since they won the majority in 2022. It's a bad idea to make sweeping statements about them finally jumping the shark since they always manage to outdo themselves but this week is certainly one for the books — if only because the stakes are so very high and they have sunk so very low.
As I wrote a couple of days ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson was caught in a trap between his fellow right-wing zealots, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene, who have appropriated Donald Trump's hostility to Ukraine, and the rest of his caucus which is more reluctant to see the world blow up. The events in the Middle East last weekend were a sober reminder that the United States' role in global security isn't the best issue to use as leverage for parochial electoral advantage. It can get real very quickly.
