McCarthy's 'desperation deal' guarantees nonstop 'disorder and factional appeasement': analysis

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is still no closer to getting the 218 votes he needs to become Speaker of the House, but he may not have a very long tenure even if he does cobble together enough votes to eventually succeed.

A new analysis written by Politico founding editor John Harris posits that the concessions that McCarthy has already made to his critics within his caucus have made it all but guaranteed that his reign as House Speaker will end in disaster.

"In desperate circumstances, Kevin McCarthy worked overnight Wednesday on a desperation deal," Harris begins. "If that deal is somehow successful, based on the work-in-progress details that came to light Thursday morning, House Republicans will essentially be codifying desperation for the indefinite future — making disorder and factional appeasement a formal part of their governing creed."

Harris then goes on to detail exactly why this deal will portend catastrophe for McCarthy or any other prospective Republican Speaker.

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"Previously, he had agreed to House rules that would allow five members to push a 'motion to vacate' forcing a vote on whether to oust the speaker," Harris notes. "Going any lower than that was supposedly a 'red line.' Now, a new deal would allow just one person to force a new showdown and McCarthy advocates say there is not really a practical difference between one and five."

In other words, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has signaled a willingness to kamikaze everything McCarthy tries to do, would gain the power to singlehandedly force nonstop votes on ousting him as Speaker under an agreement McCarthy voluntarily adopted.

Harris concludes that McCarthy might rue the day he came to agree to such conditions just to have a fleeting taste of power.

"For now, McCarthy has maneuvered himself into a situation where he might face something worse than losing the speakership: Winning it under conditions like these," he writes.