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House Speaker Mike Johnson is making Republicans nostalgic for Kevin McCarthy

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It seems like almost any day now Republicans will start singing the old musical song “Come Back to Me.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson is turning out to be the Hindenburg of House speakers. Reports say Republicans are now looking back on Kevin McCarthy’s short reign as Speaker of the House with nostalgia, longing for the good old days when the Speaker of the House seemingly had a strategy. Johnson seems adrift at political sea and a few feet away from ramming into the Titanic.

Even worse, he’s constantly being decimated, denounced and ridiculed on social media. It’s starting to look like he is to politics what often-wrong strategist Dick Morris is to political prognostication.

Politico:

For nine months in his speakership, Kevin McCarthy seemed like a man with a title but no power — desperately improvising to keep his job amid factions ready to turn on him in an instant.

Now, in his fourth month in alleged power, Speaker Mike Johnson has accomplished what once seemed unthinkable: making McCarthy seem like a skilled strategist and master of the House.

Interviews with multiple Republicans over the last few days across multiple House factions — people who consider themselves on Johnson’s team, as well as those who were never enthusiastic about his rise — describe a speaker who seems to be winging it on major questions of strategy, messaging and basic vote-counting.

Dismay over Johnson’s seemingly limp grasp on the speaker’s gavel has even produced a new trend of sorts: McCarthy nostalgia.

“Kevin would have a strategy, he’d shop it around, then he’d make a play call,” a senior Republican lawmaker said. “The more I’m around Johnson, the more it’s clear to me he doesn’t have a plan.”

Some are even going on the record. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a libertarian gadfly who was never considered a McCarthy ally, openly pined for the former speaker last week after Republicans suffered another embarrassing floor defeat.

“Getting rid of Speaker McCarthy has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster,” he tweeted.

It’s not getting any easier for Johnson.

Politico notes all of his flip-flops. It’s also worth noting that his flips are always to controversial positions taken by former President Donald Trump.

“I’m as confused as ever about what he wants,” one senior GOP aide said about the foreign aid questions. “He hasn’t given us any direction. … I think right now he’s in survival mode.”

Added another, “Not sure what the speaker wants to do on that — as with most things, he’s all over the place.”

Will Republicans soon looking at photos of Kevin McCarthy and start singing this?