The GOP’s chaos caucus is tiny. There are more Republicans in the moderate bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. Only 8 Republicans voted to oust Kevin McCarthy. 210 Republicans voted to keep McCarthy as the Speaker.32 Republicans are members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.3 Republicans did not vote.

“It’s unclear how the House will pick a new leader, though two candidates, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (Ohio), have come forward. On the off chance anyone in the House is interested in ending the chaos, one way to do it would be for whichever Republican next takes the speakership to deal with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), soliciting Democrats’ support and outlining the road forward on the budget as well as on the unresolved matter of military assistance to Ukraine. Mr. Jeffries and other Democrats, in turn, would have to lend at least tacit support — in the form of voting “present” on matters such as the speaker’s election, which would disempower the GOP ultras by changing the math needed to elect the chamber’s leader — without demanding a pound of flesh.”

“Well, I made history, didn’t I,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy quipped Tuesday, October 3, after becoming the first speaker of the House voted out of the office. Perhaps the only upside for the nation’s suddenly destabilized legislative branch is that the House of Representatives has a clean slate now; the personal animosities that some lawmakers — including a crucial bloc of his fellow Republicans — hold toward Mr. McCarthy (Calif.) are no longer relevant. And his desperation for the gavel is no longer exploitable. The chamber has a chance to make itself more functional.

Though Mr. McCarthy’s speakership heretofore was hardly distinguished by principled decisions, as opposed to appeasement of his slender majority’s far-right fringe, his downfall ironically came as punishment for a good deed: his surprise weekend decision to shake hands with Democrats on a short-term budget deal, keeping the government open but drawing a leadership challenge from a small number of ultraconservatives. The eight mutinying members of his party, led by Matt Gaetz (Fla.), were angry that Mr. McCarthy committed the apparently unforgivable sin of bridging the partisan divide in the national interest.

It would have taken just a handful of Democrats to keep Mr. McCarthy in the speaker’s chair. But some of Mr. McCarthy’s less praiseworthy actions came back to haunt him. Democrats could not forgive Mr. McCarthy’s groveling before Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, a legitimate grievance he aggravated by opening a bogus impeachment inquiry against President Biden. He refused to offer Democrats any concessions in exchange for their help keeping him on as speaker. Instead, Mr. McCarthy claimed on national television that they wanted to shut down the government. More grace, and less partisanship, might have resulted in a different outcome.

It’s unclear how the House will pick a new leader, though two candidates, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (La.) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (Ohio), have come forward. On the off chance anyone in the House is interested in ending the chaos, one way to do it would be for whichever Republican next takes the speakership to deal with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), soliciting Democrats’ support and outlining the road forward on the budget as well as on the unresolved matter of military assistance to Ukraine. Mr. Jeffries and other Democrats, in turn, would have to lend at least tacit support — in the form of voting “present” on matters such as the speaker’s election, which would disempower the GOP ultras by changing the math needed to elect the chamber’s leader — without demanding a pound of flesh.

The GOP’s chaos caucus is tiny. There are more Republicans in the moderate bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. Only 8 Republicans voted to oust Kevin McCarthy. 210 Republicans voted to keep McCarthy as the Speaker.32 Republicans are members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.3 Republicans did not vote.

In this hyperpartisan era, that much comity and pragmatism might be too much to hope for. Even less likely, though also in the national interest, would be for moderate members of each party to assert themselves. Only eight Republicans were reckless enough to vote against Mr. McCarthy; more than 200 others understood that chaos isn’t conducive to sound policymaking; 32 of those are members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which is dedicated to bipartisan solutions. They come much closer to representing America’s broad middle than does the GOP fringe — or even the rest of the House Republicans. If they were willing to partner with Democrats more often, they could be a more formidable voting bloc capable of sidelining House GOP radicals.

No matter the circumstance, nobody should accept the speakership without more job security than Mr. McCarthy had. To become speaker in the first place, he courted the right fringe by agreeing to amend the “motion to vacate” rule so that any one member could force the chamber to consider firing him. Whoever comes next should insist that the bar be much higher. The last time House ultraconservatives foiled Mr. McCarthy’s ambitions, during the 2015 speaker’s race, then-Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) set conditions on agreeing to take the gavel after Mr. McCarthy’s bid fell flat among the ultras.

Getting at least that much right is not some arcane matter but a national necessity. The House GOP’s next leader will immediately face negotiations with the White House and the Democratic-controlled Senate on funding the government, with a shutdown as the price of failure. If the next speaker is not at least marginally more empowered, as opposed to constantly fearful of another ouster attempt driven by online activists or conservative media personalities, the chaos will continue.

(Source: Washington Post)