Speaker Mike Johnson took a risk by keeping the House of Representatives out of session during the country’s longest government shutdown. Republican lawmakers got their way after the weeks-long standoff, and some members of his conference are now, if grudgingly, tipping their cap to the speaker.
Johnson spent much of the first two years of his speakership weathering mutinies from within his fractured conference. The shutdown battle presented yet another opportunity for Johnson’s critics to question his leadership and decision to keep the House out of Washington or reject negotiations with Democrats to extend Affordable Care Act tax subsidies.
And yet even some of Johnson’s critics are now lavishly praising him.