Congressman Kevin McCarthy has become the first House speaker to ever be successfully ousted in a motion to vacate vote. One day, you can tell your grandchildren you were alive to witness this completely pointless bit of history.

Representative Matt Gaetz’s self-aggrandizing political stunt makes no sense and changes nothing — other than perhaps his fundraising totals. And other than some platitudinous blathering about “the establishment” and “the uniparty,” I still haven’t seen anyone offer a coherent reason — not even retroactively — for how any of this is the “best way to advance the conservative agenda.”

It would be one thing, perhaps an admirable thing, if Mr. Gaetz had gone on this crusade for a coherent ideological or principled reason. But his post-ousting demagoguery and grandstanding about issues completely unrelated to Mr. McCarthy’s job performance proved it was a personal matter.

“I don’t think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos,” Mr. Gaetz explained. “I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think that facing a $2.2-trillion annual deficit is chaos.” Now, there are numerous people to blame for the impending fiscal disaster, but Mr. McCarthy is no more guilty than most.

One of the least convincing claims by Mr. Gaetz’s defenders is that Mr. McCarthy was punished for ignoring the base. “The base,” of course, is a popular euphemism for the most vociferous populist faction of the GOP. This faction enjoys blowing things up — mostly their own party’s prospects. In this case, the “base” was represented by eight Republicans and the entire Democratic Party.

And among these principled eight GOPers who were fighting for the honor of the base — what the New York Times called the “far-right GOP faction” — were Representatives Nancy Mace (who said Mr. Gaetz was a “fraud” the last time he tried to knock off Mr. McCarthy) and Ken Buck (who we last heard was reportedly looking for a CNN gig). I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the future of conservatism was not the motivating factor for their votes.

Most Trump-endorsed candidates didn’t even participate in Mr. McCarthy’s removal. President Trump himself tepidly supported the speaker because, as he noted, the man had said “very great things” about him. And, really, what’s more important? Though, I bet Mr. McCarthy was expecting a far more energetic defense after pathetically ingratiating himself to the former president a couple of weeks ago.

Even if Mr. Gaetz had excellent reasons, Republicans did not eject Mr. McCarthy. Eight Republicans can’t do anything by themselves. No, 208 Democrats ousted Mr. McCarthy with the help of some petulant backbenchers nursing personal vendettas. It is a political coup for the Democrats.

Mr. Gaetz, who only yesterday was going on about Mr. McCarthy’s “secret deal” with Democrats, had no qualms sitting on the opposition side of the House plotting to oust a speaker who holds a rickety nine-seat majority. If there was actually a brewing House rebellion, Mr. Gaetz would have been able to corral far more votes.

Yet Mr. Gaetz wanted to “break the fever” of D.C., so he teamed up with minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, “the squad,” Congressman Adam Schiff and so on. Mr.  Jeffries claimed he was supporting Mr. Gaetz’s efforts because Republicans have shown an “unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner.”

The notion that Democrats are backing a leading MAGA loyalist because they want to temper the “extremism” of Republicans makes about as much sense as Representative Jamaal Bowman’s fire alarm story. Democrats keep pretending they yearn for a more responsible GOP and stable political environment, then keep supporting every fringe effort and candidate to undermine both.

Of course, no one is owed anything. Mr. McCarthy isn’t the only person available in D.C. to serve as a middling speaker of the House. And, frankly, if he’d been more talented at the job, he might have headed off this challenge more effectively. Yet it’s doubtful anyone is going to perform better with a slender majority and the Senate and presidency in Democrats’ hands.

Then again, none of that matters when you’re having a tantrum.

Creators.com