This morning, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) cocked the trigger of the metaphorical pistol that she's had pointed at the head of her own party all year. She announced with great drama and flair that she would "absolutely" be triggering a motion to vacate against Speaker Mike Johnson next week. This pointless maneuver comes as the size of the GOP majority in the House continues to dwindle toward zero and everyone is in the midst of a struggle to gain traction in November's congressional elections. But to continue the metaphor, is this pistol going to misfire on Greene or even blow up in her face? There are definite signs that this might be the case and Speaker Johnson may not be in all that much danger after all. Greene, on the other hand, may be about to learn that this move isn't nearly as popular as she believes, even inside her own party.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced Wednesday she will trigger a motion to vacate against House Speaker Mike Johnson next week to force members to put their position on the record – a move that comes after Democrats have said they will vote to kill the effort and ensure Johnson doesn’t lose his job.

“I think every member of Congress needs to take that vote and let the chips fall where they may and so next week, I am going to be calling this motion to vacate. Absolutely calling it,” she said at a news conference.

“I can’t wait to see Democrats go out and support a Republican speaker and have to go home to their primaries and have to run for Congress again, having supported a Republican speaker — a ‘Christian conservative’ — I think that’ll play well. I’m excited about it,” she added.

If Greene's true motive for doing this is a desire to remove Johnson or at least punish him in some fashion, her success is far from assured. Once the motion is triggered, the process has to move forward, but the Speaker's removal is not automatic. The motion can be tabled without a final vote being taken. And the House Democrats have already stated that they will vote to table the motion. If they make good on that promise they will no doubt find plenty of support among the Republicans.

The ironic nature of what Greene is attempting to do is clearly lost on her. The basis for her complaint is that Johnson has moved forward bills that required the support of some Democrats to pass. But in order for this scheme to succeed, she would need the support of a lot of Democrats to vacate the Speaker's seat. The possibility that she will prove unable to gain that Democratic support only makes the situation more wryly humorous. 

That brings us to the "insanity" portion of this analysis. We are less than 200 days away from what is clearly a make-or-break election. Approval numbers for both Joe Biden's presidency and the policies implemented by the Democrats have been steadily tanking. There is an opportunity appearing (though far from a certainty) for the Republicans to take back not only the White House but also the Majority in the Senate and perhaps a significantly expanded majority in the House. In order to achieve those goals, however, the GOP needs to demonstrate that it actually has the ability to lead in a functional fashion and move forward with policies that will truly benefit Americans across the board. Removing the Speaker (again) would freeze any progress in the House like a glacier and nothing would get done. 

So why is MTG putting on this performance? Does she really not understand these realities? Is this all simply showmanship to drive up her name recognition? (Or would that be "showwomanship?) The Democrats are continuing to fight like hell and they are desperate to hang on to their control of the swamp and the entire nation. They won't pass up an opportunity to turn the tide back in their favor, so being able to point to the House GOP as a bunch of dysfunctional clowns would be tempting indeed. And that's why I'm not holding my breath in terms of the Dems tabling this motion. I'd love to see it happen, but that's one set of chickens we shouldn't be counting until the eggs have hatched.