Blas’ Speaker Problem

So Mayor de Blasio can walk and chew gum at the same time. Too bad he can’t sway the City Council while he’s doing it. De Blasio was off in Iowa, walking and chewing to bemuse the press, on the day that working politicians back home cut the deal to make Corey Johnson the next speaker.

Of the eight candidates, Johnson was the most vocally anti-de Blasio.

The mayor vehemently denies reports that he was utterly blindsided by the news. On the other hand, he does get blindsided a lot, doesn’t he?

By all accounts, the deal is a triumph for the Queens and Bronx machines, which de Blasio managed to end-run four years ago when he engineered the rise of Melissa Mark-Viverito. But that was at the very start of his mayoralty; now he’ll be gone by 2022 — while the machines seem to last forever.

To be fair, it’s also a triumph for Johnson in his own right, and an impressive feat for a guy who’s just 35.

Of course, most speakers develop mayoral ambitions of their own. That’s another sign de Blasio could face trouble with the council: Everyone knows that Chris Quinn’s cooperation with Mayor Mike Bloomberg helped sink her 2013 campaign.

The mayor, with far more institutional power than the council, will still have the upper hand. But the need to fend off both Gov. Cuomo punching down and Speaker Johnson punching up could leave de Blasio less time to chase his national ambitions.

Or maybe he’ll just give up gum.