McCarthy played with fire

It’s difficult to summon much sympathy for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who lost his dream job Tuesday when eight Republican dissidents turned on him. Although the Bakersfield Republican did the right thing last week in supporting a measure to avert a government shutdown that received bipartisan support, his record before then is less worthy of admiration.

This is the same McCarthy who voted to challenge some of the results of the 2020 election, courted Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, appeased hard-right members of his conference, and unilaterally acted to authorize a baseless inquiry into impeaching President Joe Biden.

Nor should Democrats, who voted as a bloc to remove him, be blamed for not coming to McCarthy’s rescue after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) moved to vacate the speaker’s chair. It is hard to see why the opposing party should have bailed out McCarthy, given his willingness to seek spending limits more restrictive than those possible under a deal he made with the White House in May to suspend the debt ceiling and avert a default.

Yet McCarthy’s ouster from the speakership could lead to even more dysfunction and drama in the House. What might be called the Nihilist Caucus in the Republican conference has been empowered by its coup against McCarthy.

If these hard-liners exercise a veto over the selection of McCarthy’s successor, they could put the next speaker on an even tighter leash than the one they fastened around McCarthy’s neck.

For the sake of their party and the country, Republicans in choosing a new speaker should seek a conciliator, not a chaos agent.