If I was in charge of hiring the Speaker of the House, I would see Louisiana's Mike Johnson to be a man with a stellar resume and a strong candidate for the job, I'd just have one question to ask him.
"Are you hungry for combat?"
As my fellow editor Joe Cunningham wrote on Thursday, Johnson checks all the boxes for someone who could be a tremendous Speaker of the House. He's pro-life, has a strong Christian foundation, is a policy hawk, principled, and a competent lawyer.
(READ: A True Conservative Speaker)
This is all well and good, and it excites me to have someone in that position who looks like someone with the potential to be the total opposite of Nancy Pelosi, someone who's about as full of corruption as she is alcohol. However, Republicans have a nasty habit of being reasonable and friendly. These are great traits to have out in the normality of everyday America, but not the Thunderdome of D.C. where every interaction is a battle.
Republican voters have been let down time and again by "principled conservatives" who talk a big game but then demonstrate that they're so ready to get along with Democrats that they start to resemble Democrats themselves. It's one of the reasons McCarthy was so reviled by voters by the time he was ousted by the Gaetz Eight and the Democrats who couldn't help but chase the carrot on the stick.
Nothing I've read about Johnson gives me too much concern...except this.
As my colleague Sister Toldja reported on Thursday, the left is busy flipping out over Johnson's Speakership role, claiming that he's an "election denier" — a favorite pastime of the Democrats up until recently — and as you drift further left into the Democrat Party, the more furious they become, especially after the man's first action was to support Israel.
But one comment from Toldja's report caught my eye and it came from CNN's Gloria Borger who said Johnson was "hard to demonize":
"You know, I think he is a person who’s hard to demonize. You know, it's very easy to demonize somebody like a Jim Jordan, who’s a firebrand. He's out there, he's fighting. And then Donald Trump can demonize an Emmer because he didn't believe the election was rigged.
But you had this kind of, I don’t use the word 'milquetoast,' that's not quite the right word, he's a serious person, who is not prone to getting in big, huge fights with people. He is known as a listener, I was told. He is hugely conservative, but he doesn't wear it on his sleeve all the time. So he can get along with moderates and listen to them. And it will be interesting to see what happens with Ukraine aid, for example. But, you know, he’s not the devil incarnate."
I don't mind a leader who can work with Democrats to get some real bipartisan legislation passed that truly helps the country...but that's not exactly what Democrats are about nowadays. Democrats aren't out to help America, they're out to help Democrats. That much has been made very clear, and a quick glance at my reporting alone will show you that's pretty apparent.
(READ: There Is No Democrat Party)
Here's the issue.
Democrats love the idea of friendly Republicans. Friendly Republicans can be manipulated, used, abused, and tossed aside. You can ask McCarthy about that.
We don't need a "friendly" Republican. We need a fighter. No, scratch that. We need a conqueror. Someone willing to be a real issue to Democrats. Someone who, with the mere mention of his name, can send the left into an apoplectic rage because of how much damage he's done to their agenda and will continue to do for as long as he wields the gavel.
And to be clear, Republican voters need this right now.
As it stands, the Republican Party is leaderless. Sure, they may have their idea for a 2024 candidate in mind, but while everyone awaits the promotion of the Republican's Captain, there's an opportunity for Johnson to become a stupendous First Sergeant.
Johnson can set the pace and be the leader that shows the voting populace what the Republican Party is and what it's capable of. To be sure, there are a lot of hangups thanks to midterms that didn't deliver as it should, but it's here that Johnson can shine. He can be the spiritual leader of the Republican Party by showing that he's willing to fight uncompromisingly against the left, support Republican candidates running for office, and all while still holding to principles that this country can truly get behind.
Republicans need this right now. It's a Party in disarray with a voter base that has lost faith in it. Johnson has to prove that Republicans are still a fighting force for the people, capable of doing tremendous damage to the internal enemies of America and holding the corrupt accountable. If he can do that, then Johnson won't just be a great Speaker, but a superb American leader who may, one day, be the people's choice for President.
All he has to do is bare his fangs and bite when the time comes.