An estimate of the situation surrounding House Speaker Mike Johnson’s stupid push to ban non-citizens from voting in federal elections by Politico Playbook sees two sides to the story: One is that, on paper, any policy to prohibit it is popular across the spectrum, whether or not polling respondents understand that it is in fact already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections and the number of cases of it over the past few decades is vanishingly small. So they may be able to squeeze some of the front-line Dems into voting yes. It’s also a smart play to pair the vote with one on a bill restricting DC’s law allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections, purposely conflating the two completely separate issues. Cynical too, but take that for granted with the GOP.

On the other hand, it kind of flies in the face of the GOP’s overall article of faith that the federal government and Congress have no role in how states are supposed to run elections. Which is what “moderate” Republican Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon told Playbook that “generally, elections are state-by-state decisions” and he’ll “have to wrestle with that one” (probably bullshit).

“We should also note here that even some Republicans aren’t so sure about Johnson’s play call on the nationwide voting bill. Some feel the speaker jumped the gun to try to curry favor with Trump to save his gavel without ensuring they have the votes to pass it,” Playbook writes, hinting that the “principle” of state administration over elections is actually a thing. What obviously isn’t however is any pretense of sincerity that the bill will actually be taken up by the Dem majority Senate and signed, or that even the messaging behind it even makes sense. It’s simply Johnson trying to assuage fat former President Trump’s delusional horseshit about illegal aliens voting.