Mike John­son finds his foot­ing despite House Repub­li­can land mines

In the last month, Speak­er Mike John­son (R‑LA) has pulled off what at one time seemed like an impos­si­ble feat. 
Despite an unruly con­fer­ence and his own inex­pe­ri­ence, he man­aged to ush­er through the House three sets of bills that frac­tured Repub­li­cans for much of the 118th Con­gress.
Each piece of leg­is­la­tion, on for­eign aid, 2024 spend­ing, and war­rant­less sur­veil­lance, rep­re­sent­ed a strike against him in the eyes of the hard-lin­ers con­sid­er­ing his ouster. They required com­pro­mise with the Democ­rats and, in some cas­es, lacked the votes of a major­i­ty of House Repub­li­cans.
But John­son has emerged on the oth­er side of the tur­moil in a posi­tion of strength. He is like­ly to sur­vive an ouster attempt, should it mate­ri­al­ize, and has moved to dis­play GOP uni­ty on Columbia’s anti-Israel protests and oth­er issues that have divid­ed Democ­rats.
John­son entered the speak­er­ship in Octo­ber with­out the well of loy­al­ty enjoyed by his pre­de­ces­sor. He was a rel­a­tive unknown, hav­ing been the fourth choice of Repub­li­cans exhaust­ed by three weeks of divi­sion over who should replace Kevin McCarthy.
His ele­va­tion had more to do with his lack of ene­mies than the alliances he had built in just four terms in Con­gress.
That cre­at­ed trou­ble for him, espe­cial­ly on fed­er­al spend­ing. He inher­it­ed the same band of rab­ble-rousers who con­sid­ered a deal McCarthy cut on the debt lim­it a betray­al. But John­son also faced dis­plays of defia …