Even Speaker Moses Underestimated Donald Trump's Ignorance and Elon Musk's Contempt for Institutions

Speaker Moses has the Tesla of Damocles hanging over his head now. From the Washington Post:

Republicans on Wednesday rejected a plan by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) for a three-month stopgap funding extension, called a continuing resolution or CR, with more than $100 billion in aid for natural disaster survivors, bipartisan health-care policy changes and other unrelated provisions. House Republican leaders made no significant process overnight to fund the government and avoid a government shutdown this weekend, two people familiar with the negotiations said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share private deliberations...Musk, sometimes boosting false claims on X, the social media site he owns, trashed the bill in an hours-long tirade, calling it “terrible,” “criminal,” “outrageous,” “horrible,” “unconscionable,” “crazy” and, ultimately, “an insane crime.”

Somebody needs to put his head down on his desk for a little quiet time.

Nonetheless, Musk got his way. The continuing resolution crafted by Speaker Moses—and perhaps, his Speakership itself—evaporated under the white-hot stupidity of a coalition made up of the Angry Children's Caucus, Donald Trump's ignorance, and Elon Musk's utter contempt for every human institution he cannot buy and ruin. Trump's not president yet, and nobody voted for Musk, and yet there isn't a Republican in Congress who is willing to act on these self-evident facts on his own. Combine that with the antics of the Angry Children's Caucus, and we are confronted with another four years in which the Republicans are laughably incapable of governing the country.

Not that Speaker Moses doesn't carry some weight for this fiasco. He mismanaged the CR from hell to breakfast; if he'd put it to a floor vote earlier this week, it might have passed, even with all the add-ons to which Johnson himself opened it up. And he plainly misread the temper of his own conference, and not for the first time, either. Why he should be surprised at this point that he presides over a festival of fools, being one himself, remains a mystery.

Another interesting question is what will the Democrats do. (If you answered, reflexively, screw it up, shame on you.) For the moment, it seems, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is eagerly anticipating the tiny majority that will be handed to whoever the next Speaker may be. FromThe Hill:

In a brief statement, Jeffries invoked the growing conservative outcry over the negotiated continuing resolution (CR)—including opposition from President-elect Trump—and warned Republicans that they will “own” the economic and political fallout if a shutdown occurs. “House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support,” Jeffries posted on social platform X. “You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”

This fiasco also has handed the Democrats a comic opera plutocrat for a villain whom they should exploit at every turn. If Thomas Nast were alive, he'd have Elon Musk on a spit, rotating, for the next decade, making him represent both conservative economics and conservative ignorance. One way I know this is that Musk's ascent into political influence has prompted Senator Rand Paul to say something stupid about him. Senator Aqua Buddha has proposed making Musk the Speaker of the House.

Oh, yeah, these guys are ready to govern.