They were ready to pounce. Democrats, that is. 

The minute Republicans elected a Speaker of the House - finally - those across the aisle began firing away trying to verbally assassinate the man with adjectives of varying degrees of of creativity.

There were the predictable insults:

Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana is “ultra-conservative” “cultural conservative” and “Mega MAGA” they said on social media.

He’s very conservative, in fact he’s also a “hard-right conservative,” “religious conservative” and “deeply conservative.”

There were lots of variations on the “extremist” theme, too. Johnson’s a “Trump extremist,” “MAGA extremist” and an “extreme MAGA Republican.”

There was also a dose of clever derision for the new guy: Christofascist, dominionist (whatever that is) and anti-human.

Oh, he’s also an “election denier,” “misogynist,” “bigot” and “insurrectionist.”

(Dems conveniently forget that the chief election denier of 2016, besides Hillary, was Hakeem Jeffries who declared Trump’s election “illegitimate.”)

You know what? With so many people on the far left losing their minds over his unanimous election, I began to think the GOP may have picked a winner.

Johnson’s maiden speech was smart and forceful. He promised to form a bipartisan debt commission to find ways to tackle the national debt and he said his first order of business was to hold a vote on a resolution supporting America’s friend, Israel, and denouncing the barbarians of Hamas. 

When the bipartisan resolution came to a vote, 10 representatives voted against it: Jamaal Bowman of New York,  Cori Bush of Missouri, Andre Carson of Indiana, Al Green of Texas, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Delia Ramirez of Illinois and of course, Israel-hater extraordinaire, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Oh, and another six cowards who couldn’t bring themselves to denounce the murder of children and women voted “present”: Greg Casar of Texas,  Joaquin Castro of Texas,  Chuy Garcia of Illinois, Pramila Jayapal of Washington,  Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Nydia Velázquez of New York.

Remember their names. These supporters of terrorism have earned the insults.