House Republicans give up on caring what their leader has to say

If you’re looking for an encapsulation of just how much of a mess the House Republican conference is, go no further than this headline from The Washington Post on Friday: “A majority of House Republicans retreat from their retreat.” It seems the one thing the majority of them can agree on is just how much they don’t want to have to deal with each other. Or maybe they just didn’t want to be subjected to more of House Speaker Mike Johson’s sermons.

Johnson was able to get less than half of his conference to show up at what was supposed to be the House GOP’s big strategy retreat this week. Participation was so pathetic that they had to scrap day two, which was supposed to be devoted to discussing policy and strategies for expanding the majority in this election. When it comes to the governing part of their jobs, they got nothin’.

Asked about the poor attendance, Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is in charge of putting together the annual messaging retreat, told reporters that Republicans still have an “enthusiastic conference.” It’s just that all the Republicans who didn’t show up had to be back home to campaign in their primaries. Supposedly, it had nothing to do with the fact that some members would “rather sit down with Hannibal Lecter and eat my own liver,” as one colorfully put it this week.