The House took some three weeks following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, but there is a new Speaker:  Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana.  We follow the road to victory and discuss Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed role of kingmaker.

In addition:

— We talk to Paul Horcher, who as an independent Republican assemblyman from California in 1994 decided to bolt his party and vote for Democrat Willie Brown for Speaker … an act that got him recalled.

— We go back into the archives for a 2015 conversation with former Congressman Bob Livingston, himself a former potential House speaker, who talks, with regret, about the ousting by the far right of Speaker John Boehner.  Bob also offers his thoughts on the assumed successor at the time, Kevin McCarthy, as well as a presidential field for 2016 that could include Donald Trump.

Music in this episode:

Burning Down the House by Talking Heads

What I Like About You by The Romantics

I’m Not the Man I Used to Be by Fine Young Cannibals

Trouble by Lindsey Buckingham

The post Episode #404: Master Of The House (For Now) appeared first on Ken Rudin's Political Junkie.