The eight House Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) who voted to topple House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from power on Tuesday effectively "cut off their own heads" and neutered their own party, with no idea where to go from here, wrote the Wall Street Journal editorial board in a blistering op-ed.
McCarthy, wrote the board, showed genuine leadership when he "put the country first on Saturday in refusing to let the plotters shut down the government for no good purpose" — but a few days later, faced with a coup from his right flank, "he refused to ask Democrats for a power-sharing deal in return for votes to rescue his Speakership. He put his party above his job, and his reward is that he is the first Speaker ousted in history."
"In retrospect the die may have been cast at the start of this Congress when Mr. McCarthy conceded to a rule that any single Member could offer a motion to vacate his chair," wrote the board. "He may have had no choice to win the job, and he did so assuming at least some goodwill among his critics. The reality is that they were always lying in wait to strike."
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What happens next is unclear — the election of a new Speaker, with McCarthy agreeing to bow out from consideration for being re-nominated, could take at least a week, and Congress still needs to craft a permanent funding deal to avert the new shutdown cliff in November.
Meanwhile, Gaetz, the architect of the current chaos, "is the prototype of this modern performance artist, as he raises money for a potential run for Florida Governor," the board wrote.
"The House is essentially frozen," the board concluded ominously. "The putative GOP majority is weaker, and its ability to gain any policy victories has been undermined. Oversight of the Biden Administration will slow or stop. Republicans in swing districts who are vulnerable in 2024 will be especially wary of trusting the Gaetz faction, and regaining any unity of purpose will be that much harder. The crazy left and right are cheering, but no one else is."
