Kevin McCarthy ousted as House speaker, causing Congress chaos

Kevin McCarthy made history Tuesday becoming the first speaker of the House of Representatives to be ousted by a floor vote with the help of members of his own party.

Eight Republicans Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Matt Rosendale of Montana banded together with a united Democrat conference to declare the office of speaker vacant by a vote of 216-210, removing McCarthy (R-Calif.) from power and thrusting the chamber into chaos as it faces a grinding process to pick his replacement.

The prospect of a revolt against McCarthy, 58, had been dangled for several months by Gaetz, his chief Republican antagonist.

Gaetz, 41, finally went ahead with the motion to vacate Monday night, after a weekend of stewing over the speaker s decision to call up a stopgap spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown  and rely on Democratic votes to get the measure through.

If five Republicans go with Democrats, I m out, McCarthy told reporters Tuesday morning, before predicting: I m confident I ll hold on.

via nypost.com

The only silver lining in this mess I see is that McCarthy reportedly is a very unlikable guy, petty, vindictive, dishonest — all the things one traditionally dislikes about politicians. Whether he really is these things, or just big ol’ teddy bear, I have no idea.

When I was at Cornell I was taking a class on the birth of fascism or some similar topic. One day our reading and discussion was about the decline and decrepitude of parliamentary government on the Continent. I wanted to join the discussion and say something like “But this is awful! I like parliaments, congresses, Senates, and so on! That’s democracy, or as close as we should get! Why didn’t these darn Europeans just man up [this was the 1970s], hash out their compromises and carry on!” but somebody else made the point first. It’s not so much a point as a sentiment.

The market doesn’t seem to like the hijinks in DC much either.