Bonfire of the principles
Bill Cassidy and Mike Johnson jettison their Christian principles and adopt a new lord and savior
I’m sure you and I don’t expect much from shameless demagogues like U.S. Sen. John Kennedy and U.S. Reps. Steve Scalise, Garret Graves, and Clay Higgins. They sold their souls to Donald Trump and the far right long ago.
Kennedy, Scalise, Graves, and Higgins sacrificed whatever scraps of dignity they had in 2016 when they supported Donald Trump and again after the insurrection when they failed to condemn Trump and his effort to overthrow a presidential election.
Their prime spots in Louisiana’s Political Pantheon of Shame are secure.
But after all these years of working for and watching politicians, I guess I still don’t understand some political leaders, their insecurities, and their abject fear of unemployment, irrelevance, and rejection.
You’d think that people with professional degrees, ample financial resources, marketable skills, and some notoriety would be more confident and surer of themselves. And you’d think that men and women who tout their commitment to Jesus and Christian principles would be better equipped to stand up for those principles when challenged.
But you'd be wrong when it comes to U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.
On Thursday, Donald Trump – convicted felon and leader of a violent insurrection – returned to the scene of one of his crimes: the U.S. Capitol, where his supporters had responded to his provocations, ransacking the seat of American democracy on Jan. 6, 2021.
Johnson, who claims to be a Christian, has embraced our American Caligula with a shameful passion. Johnson says he worships Jesus, but it’s clear his real lord and (political) savior is Trump.
The outwardly pious House speaker from Shreveport was downright giddy in Trump’s presence on Thursday and swooned after Trump offered him some faint praise.
“He said very complimentary things about all of us. We had sustained applause,” Johnson said with a bashful smile after he and dozens of Republican members of Congress gathered to lionize their spiritual and political leader. “He said I’m doing a very good job. We’re grateful for that.”
But no one did more on Thursday to torch his dignity on the bonfire of Trump’s vanities than Cassidy. After all, Cassidy voted to impeach Trump in his second Senate trial.
In February 2021, Cassidy forcefully defended his decision to vote to proceed with a Senate trial of Trump. And he defended his vote to convict the former president. “Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person,” Cassidy said in a video released after the trial. “I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty.”
Later, Cassidy declined to endorse Trump for reelection in 2024 and went so far as to say Trump could not win.
“The president’s [Trump’s] kind of high-profile endorsement of those candidates actually hurt those candidates, at least in the general election,” Cassidy said on CNN in May 2023. “So, if past is prologue, that means President Trump is going to have a hard time in those swing states, which means that he cannot win a general election.”
As you might imagine, Trump is no fan of Cassidy.
“One of the worst Senators in the United States Senate is, without question, Bill Cassidy, A TOTAL FLAKE, Republican though he may be. He campaigned in the Great State of Louisiana on TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, and was absolutely thrilled when he was able to get my very important Endorsement,” Trump wrote in May on his Truth Social site. “Cassidy is a total ‘stiff,’ but Louisiana didn’t need him to protect them, because they had ME, 100%! Nevertheless, when the Democrats’ Impeachment Hoax started, this Lamebrain Senator actually voted against me,” Trump added.
But it’s only two years from Cassidy’s 2026 reelection campaign, and he’s feeling vulnerable. He wants to keep his Senate seat. Graves is just one of several Trump-worshiping Republicans likely exploring a challenge to Cassidy.
So, now that Cassidy feels the heat from Trump’s criticism, it’s time to scrap his principles.
After what I assume was a period of fervent prayer, Cassidy set fire to his credibility as a principled man of God and showed up at the Capitol Hill worship service. He (figuratively) bowed down to the fatted calf.
“Just met with my colleagues and President Trump,” Cassidy said in a statement yesterday after the Trump worship service. “I was elected to work for Louisiana and the United States of America. I commit to working with President Trump if he is the next president—and it appears he is going to be—to make things better for all.”
As I said, I fail to understand politicians who so easily toss their principles overboard to hold onto an office they don’t need. If Cassidy found himself unemployed today, he’d be fine. He’d still live comfortably in his University Lake-side home. He would eat well and travel in style. If he didn’t want to return to practicing medicine, he’d probably find lucrative work as a lobbyist.
No matter how much he clings to his office, Cassidy's chances for political redemption are probably slim despite his recent humiliating effort to work his way back into Trump’s good graces. In 2026, Trump and Gov. Jeff Landry will have many more loyal choices to endorse besides Cassidy, a questionable, uncharismatic politician without principle.
I wouldn’t bet on Cassidy surviving a Republican primary (and party primaries in congressional elections will begin in 2026) against a movement conservative who voted to acquit Trump.
At that point, Cassidy will be out of a government job. And, unlike former Reps. Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, our former senior senator will find no warmth in the knowledge that, at least, he remained loyal to his principles. Because he didn’t.
Instead, he will find cold comfort in the haunting realization that he threw it all away in a useless effort to win the affections of a corrupt authoritarian who is the antithesis of everything Cassidy claims to represent.
I actually defended Cassidy and the decision he made to move forward with the Senate trial of Trump. I thought Cassidy was principled. Boy, will I ever learn. He apparently doesn't have the character or fortitude to win on issues, and has fallen into Trump's web, even after the former President personally attacked him for not coming to heel with the rest of the sycophants. This isn't leadership, it's membership.
Well said, Bob! Dr. Cassidy has so many options for a continued successful and fulfilling life, even if he were to lose his re-election bid in 2026 by standing on and holding to solid moral principles of truth, integrity, and rule of law! Again, power appears to be a inescapable addiction for many! Holding onto power at all costs means abandoning the principle of using power to do good; i.e. serving the true best interests of the people (even when too many are too stupid, or willfully ignorant, to know what their best interests are)!