Three reasons Mike Johnson’s job is safe — and one reason it might not be

And just like that, after months of dragged out negotiations and false starts, the House of Representatives passed legislation to assist Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The vote showed a stunning about-face for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who as a backbencher opposed aid to Ukraine. Since then, he’s been hailed for standing up to his party — even though he only did so after he’d exhausted all other options. (Readers of Inside Washington may remember I called Johnson a coward a few months ago for refusing to put the Ukraine bill to the floor).

But the vote means Johnson has to consider whether Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the right-wing conspiracy theorist and acolyte of Donald Trump, will carry through with her threats and actually topple him from his job. Since filing her motion to vacate last month, Greene has been joined by two other firebrands, Representatives Paul Gosar of Arizona and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

If Greene succeeds, it would be the second time the House has booted a speaker this Congress. But there are plenty of reasons to think that Johnson might hold onto his job — and one big reason why he might be in trouble.

Representative Matt Gaetz’s motion to vacate House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year succeeded not simply because of conservative Republican outrage at McCarthy, but because Democrats joined them.

They did so because McCarthy took every opportunity he could to antagonize them. Indeed, the day after Democrats bailed him out to keep the government open, he proceeded to trash them on Face the Nation to CBS host Margaret Brennan instead of thanking them. McCarthy took various measures simply to poke Democrats in the eye, such as censuring Representative Adam Schiff and removing him and