Mike Johnson and his family recently celebrated his first three years as Speaker of the House.
I was startled when I realized it was the third anniversary of his election. It seemed like it was just yesterday that he came out of nowhere to lead the House GOP.
Speaker Johnson’s emergence as a national leader seemed wildly improbable at the time. He was a relative backbencher with only six-and-a-half years of service in the House. The highest rank in leadership he had attained was vice chairman of the House Republican Conference.
His predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, had taken a longer road. He was active as a Young Republican and then worked for Congressman Bill Thomas, who became Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee after a career as a professor of political science and a member of the California Assembly. Thomas was remarkably competent and knowledgeable — and a great mentor.
McCarthy went on to win a seat in the California Assembly and was elected leader as a freshman. Then he won the congressional seat when Thomas retired. McCarthy ultimately became leader and led the House GOP back from its defeats in the 2018 election.
He was hard-working, clever, a solid strategist, and led the party back into the majority. Sadly, he made a mortal enemy of Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida. Gaetz was smart, a good salesman, a remarkably effective manipulator, and totally destructive. He gathered a band of rabble-rousing House Republicans who were prepared to invent a national scandal if that is what it took to drive McCarthy from office. Their first attack took 15 ballots as the House Democrats cheerfully watched their Republican counterparts tear themselves apart.
When McCarthy finally accepted the inevitable, the GOP went through a period of publicly stumbling around in the wilderness. Several strong and well known leaders sought to become the next speaker. They all failed.
In exhaustion, the GOP Conference turned to Rep. Johnson of Shreveport, La. He chaired a subcommittee and was well liked but not well known by the public. Yet, he was suddenly on the national stage.
All the recent speakers had spent years growing into the leadership. I had 16 years of experience before the Contract with America led to the first GOP majority in 40 years. Johnson had about 15 minutes to go from congratulations to dealing with the national press — and a party ready to keep fighting itself.
We all rapidly learned Johnson was more than prepared to lead. He is a lawyer with a superb understanding of the U.S. Constitution and a dedication to religious liberty. He has a wonder wife and family, who I credit with providing Johnson with the unshakable calmness he has displayed over these three years.
As I grew to know Johnson, I realized that he naturally has one of the greatest skills any senior leader can hope to obtain; he knows how to listen and is patient enough to do it endlessly.
My own pattern, which I learned over a lifetime, is listen, learn, help, and lead — in that order. Johnson practices it instinctively and with enormous endurance.
With such a narrow majority — and some of the self-defeating cannibalism inherited from the assault on McCarthy — Speaker Johnson proved he had the patience of Job as he listened to complaint after complaint and idea after idea.
But Johnson is a natural southern conservative. He was comfortable becoming the leader we needed in the House. He knew that his only hope was to work closely with President Donald J. Trump and deliver for his huge base of supporters.
Working together, they won vote after vote no matter how narrow the margin. President Trump leaned on the House to set up the much harder to manage Senate.
Johnson found himself at Mar-a-Lago the day the would-be shooter was discovered on the golf course. This second attempt on President Trump’s life seemed to really impact the President, and he and Johnson went away to a private room to pray for an hour. I’m sure this moment of mutual sympathy strengthened their relationship.
The election is less than a week away, and no one has done more to win it for the GOP than Speaker Johnson. He has tirelessly crisscrossed †he country and raised more money than any Speaker in history. His work dwarfs my efforts from the late 1990s.
Whatever happens next Tuesday, Speaker Johnson will go down in history as a remarkably successful, sincere, courageous, and hard working leader.
My hunch is he has a lot more ahead of him.
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Sadly, he made a mortal enemy of Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida. Gaetz was smart, a good salesman, a remarkably effective manipulator, and a Total Douche Bag.
He's now at One America News. Which says a lot about them.