My hope all along during the House speaker kerfuffle was that the competing wings within the Republican Party could find a compromise candidate, someone who would pledge to work with all the members of the House.

That’s not what they got in Speaker Mike Johnson. Oh, no. They got a MAGA acolyte who wants to ban abortion nationwide, who continues to challenge the legitimacy of President Biden’s election in 2020, who questions whether we should continue to fund Ukraine’s battle for independence against the Russian aggressors and who seemingly sides with those who want to shut down the government.

The MAGA clowns turned on the lights in the back of the House chamber and found the congressional newbie who fits their description of the near-perfect House speaker.

What a shame. And a sham!

I heard MAGA Mike declare upon taking the oath that he would be the speaker for the entire legislative chamber. Doesn’t that imply he would be willing work with Democrats along with Republicans? It does to me.

Then again, how does that square with the MAGA goons’ stated mission to avoid working with Democrats? That’s what got former Speaker Kevin McCarthy into trouble, right? He locked arms with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown and then — presto! — we had the motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. It came from a single MAGA congressman, Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Ladies and gents, what we have now is a speaker who will serve only a small minority of the majority party in the House. To hell with public opinion of the rest of the country that opposes a national abortion, opposes shutting down the government, wants to continue supporting Ukraine and believes Joe Biden was elected fairly, squarely and legally as president in 2020.

God help us!