To Speaker Mike Johnson, Newt Gingrich was the best to ever hold the speaker’s gavel.
But even
“He said, ‘I couldn’t do it,’”
As for himself, Johnson said, “I don’t have the luxury of not having patience.”
All three new leaders have adopted — by dint of personality and a new political moment — more open, and patient approaches that contrast with their more top-down predecessors. The result is a process in Congress that’s increasingly broad and collaborative, but also more chaotic and unpredictable.
Gingrich, in an interview, said that when he led the House GOP, he was the central figure guiding the party’s legislative agenda, its pitch, and strategy. In an era of social media, individual Congressional stars, and President Donald Trump, there’s now no such singular authority in Congress.
“I would not have been effective,” in Johnson’s position, Gingrich said at the Capitol. “I was the person who defined what we were trying to accomplish and the language of doing it. Now he has to operate within Trump’s definition.”
The contrasting styles, and circumstances, between Johnson and Gingrich is just one example. Jeffries and Thune have faced similar dyanimcs as they’ve stepped into voids created by their imposing predecessors, former
As Johnson, 53, Jeffries, 54, and Thune, 64, have attained three of the Capitol’s Big Four leadership posts, alongside the more established Senate Minority Leader
“First and foremost, Leader Jeffries is a listener,” said Rep. Steve Horsford (D-Nev.).
Johnson “genuinely listens and he’s got a lot more patience than I do, that’s for sure,” said Rep.
Thune “was calm, listened a lot instead of talking,” while pushing to pass the GOP tax bill this month, said Sen.
A Shift From Past Leaders
It’s a shift from the more forceful styles of the past.
Johnson “has taken to heart the criticism,” of recent speakers “that things were too centralized,” said Brendan Buck, a former aide to Republican Speakers Paul Ryan (Wisc.) and John Boehner (Ohio).
Rank-and-file lawmakers “didn’t want to be dictated to by leadership what the right policy or what the right play was.”
Johnson said that isn’t even an option.
While Gingrich said he could lose six to eight GOP votes without worrying about it, Johnson has such slim margins he has to be attuned to every concern. And the power of social media means lawmakers no longer depend on leaders for attention, power, or fund-raising, Buck said.
Instead, defying leadership can be a route to viral influence.
“We’re doing things right now that previous generations never had to contend with,” Johnson said. He called social media “a toxin to the political system.”
Gone are the days when a few “whales” who held key positions could dominate Congress’ “minnows,” Gingrich said.
“If you’re the speaker in the modern era, you realize you probably can’t bully very many people, but you can reward a lot of people,” Gingrich said.
Of course, it would be hard for any new leaders to match the power and aura that Pelosi and McConnell carried after long years at the pinnacle of Congress. And it helps open up communication, some lawmakers said, that many of today’s rank-and-file served alongside Jeffries, Johnson, and Thune as peers, rather than only looking up to them as party giants.
The Trump Factor
As with nearly everything in Washington, much of what seems different also depends on Trump. Republican leaders can afford to have a softer hand, because the president is his own hammer.
“Trump is in charge of everything,” said Drew Hammill, a former senior Pelosi aide who dismissed the idea that Republican leaders are opening their processes. Thune and Johnson “are ceding their role and their power to the president.”
But many Republicans said they felt like their leaders are listening more, even if Trump remains the driving force.
So what’s their new approach mean for making laws?
Top leaders might take fewer arrows from their members. There’s less griping about ideas imposed from the top.
The trade off is a drawn-out, and at times haphazard process as leaders listen and listen some more, and individuals hold-outs make more demands, often delaying decisions. Thune was still patching together the GOP tax bill even as the Trump-mandated deadline neared.
“That’s how you end up with a bill that doesn’t have a very clear narrative and is hard to explain, hard to sell,” Buck said.
Gingrich, author of the Contract With America, wouldn’t love that, either.
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