Welcome to Washington: An Embarrassment of Historic Proportions

In leaving the House of Representatives speakerless for nearly two weeks, Republicans have sleep-walked into an embarrassment of historic proportion — something that will be taught years from now as an example of democracy’s predilection for dysfunction. The congressional GOP has been wandering toward this cliff for more than a decade, and if the lesson they take from this episode is to keep rewarding bad behavior, then things are only going to get worse. Much of the anger about how the GOP got here has been — justifiably — directed at Congressman Matt Gaetz, who made a motion to remove the now-former speaker, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, solely because he does not like him. Congressman Tim Burchett voted for the measure because Mr. McCarthy apparently made light of his faith. Congressman Eli Crane and Congressman Matt Rosendale are chaos agents who raise money and make headlines by being a pain for congressional leadership. No one knows what Congresswoman Nancy Mace is doing. Once those eight members made the decision to end the McCarthy speakership, one could have expected that Mr. McCarthy would regroup to work out a deal with either those eight or some small band of Democrats to regain his post, or the No. 2 House Republican, Congressman Steve Scalise, would quickly step into the role. Neither of those men had the mettle to keep fighting to work out a deal. Who can blame them? Leading this Republican conference seems like the most miserable job in the world when you have to spend your days raising money and cutting advertisements for people whose political success depends on your failure. No one should be angry or even surprised that Mr. Gaetz decided to begin the process of removing Mr. McCarthy, though. In order to win the speaker’s gavel in January, Mr. McCarthy made the decision to lower the threshold for enabling a motion to vacate, so that any one member of the House could come to the floor and begin the process of removing from his post the person second in line for the presidency.Mr. McCarthy’s January deal to win the speakership is the same deal that abruptly ended his tenure and is part of a long-running trend of House Republican leaders acquiescing to the most fringe elements of their party for fear of facing backlash, even if that means that their party, the Congress, and the nation are worse off for suffering at the hands of, as Speaker Boehner called them, “legislative terrorists.”On Friday, Congressman Jim Jordan won the Republican nomination for speaker, though his tenuous position is highlighted by the fact that 55 members of the House GOP said they would not support him when the vote comes to the floor. When I talked with Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis shortly after Mr. Jordan won the nomination vote on Friday, she told me that the reservations about his leadership comes not only from some moderates but also some of the veteran conservatives who have not forgotten his antics, such as helping to push Mr. Boehner out of his position in 2015. During his 16 years in Congress, Mr. Jordan has failed to pass a single piece of legislation through the House. He has been instrumental in killing significant Republican-backed proposals ranging from the 2017 health care reform bill to the 2013 bipartisan Gang of Eight immigration reform legislation. Saying “no” has been his default setting since he made his way to Washington. A man whose legislative strategy is no more complex than taking his ball and going home is now his party’s nominee for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. If doing nothing and saying anything will place you second in line to the presidency, then what are the incentives for any serious person to even run for Congress, let alone seek a leadership role?Mr. Jordan is not built to be Speaker of the House — he is an activist and a conservative gadfly who pushes the party to its limits when he can. Yet within moments of Mr. Scalise’s exit from the race for speaker late on Thursday night, word started spreading through the room that Mr. Jordan was making calls about running for the GOP speaker nomination.At one point someone offers to share a bottle of the bourbon he had stashed in his desk, and after a few drinks, a fellow reporter quips to me about the House: “God, this is such an unserious place.” Bottoms up, I say. Welcome to Washington.

Welcome to Washington: An Embarrassment of Historic Proportions

Welcome to Washington: An Embarrassment of Historic Proportions

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