'Herding quail': Ex-Bush official predicts why Republicans will be 'completely unproductive in 2024'

In a column published by The New Republic on January 3, 2023, journalist Michael Tomasky warned "that nothing productive or beneficial will come from the GOP majority that is taking over the House," predicting there would be "a lot of chaos and empty political theatrics from 'far-right' MAGA Republicans, conspiracy theorists and Donald Trump loyalists."

Earlier this month — 11 months later — The Washington Post's Dana Milbank — who has covered the House of Representatives all year — "deemed the current session of the House 'the most ineffective session of Congress in nearly a century — and quite possibly in all of American history." She emphasized, "The year began with chaos and incompetence. It ended with chaos and incompetence. In between were self-created crises and shocking moments of fratricide — interspersed with more chaos and incompetence."

On Wednesday, December 27, MSNBC's Richard Lui asked former President George W. Bush chief strategist Matthew Dowd about whether he believes House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will succeed in rallying his GOP colleagues for a more effective and productive year in 2024.

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"Well, I think they're going to be consistent, which means they're going to be completely unproductive in 2024," Dowd said. "The problem that Johnson has, and you can question him as a leader and all that, and as I have. The problem is his caucus. It's like herding quail. And you can't herd quail because they're all over the place. They all have different viewpoints on things. Some don't want to support being with Trump, most don't want to support being with Trump. So I think he's in an untenable position. The other problem he has, is that Donald Trump will dominate the landscape throughout 2024 while the Congress is trying to work, and while Mike Johnson is trying to work. And he's going to weigh in and be a disruptive force. So he has to not only deal with an unruly caucus, he has to deal with this sort of unstoppable, disruptive force of Donald Trump that he'll have to face throughout 2024."

Watch the video below or at this link.

'Herding quail': Ex-Bush official predicts why Republicans will be 'completely unproductive in 2024'youtu.be

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