Kevin McCarthy goes down in infamy as the first deposed House speaker. He earned it | Opinion

Kevin McCarthy’s losing the speakership of the House of Representatives was both historic and a foregone conclusion.

The poison pill was set last January, when McCarthy endured 15 votes to achieve his long-sought dream: To lead the House as speaker and become second in the line of succession to lead America.

But in finally reaching the goal, McCarthy had to agree to allow any House member to call for his removal. In House parlance, it is called the motion to vacate.

His predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, never faced imminent removal because she had the support of her caucus. McCarthy never did because the far right in his party never liked him and Democrats had good reason to never trust him. So McCarthy became singular in infamy — the first House leader ever stripped of power by his own party.

That McCarthy arrived at this historic moment by doing the right thing and working with Democrats to keep the government solvent, a move that triggered the GOP crazies, was an irony overwhelmed by political realities.

On Monday night, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida filed the motion and started the process to vacate. It was the first time in more than a century that such a motion had been brought against a House speaker. (In 1910, Republicans tried unsuccessfully to remove then-Speaker Joseph Cannon).

McCarthy, the Republican from Bakersfield, brought his demise on himself with poor political judgments that he had repeatedly made since Jan 6, 2021.

McCarthy and Trump

In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, McCarthy spoke against then-President Trump for his inciting the attackers.

“I’ve had it with this guy,” McCarthy is heard saying about Trump on a recording obtained by The New York Times. At the time, McCarthy was the GOP leader in the House.

Yet weeks later, after Democrat Joe Biden had been sworn in as the new president, McCarthy went to Trump’s Florida home and lent his credibility to the disgraced former president — essentially giving him new political life. McCarthy knew he would need the backing of Trump supporters in the House to become speaker.

As was abundantly shown by the House committee that investigated the rioting and efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election, Trump played the leading role in trying to overcome the will of voters. And yet McCarthy put a stamp of approval on him, allowing Trump to remain relevant on the national stage.

Cast his lot

Since becoming speaker in January, McCarthy made appeasing the hard-right members a key goal. The chief example is his allowing an impeachment inquiry to begin against Biden, despite any lack of evidence that the president has done anything wrong, and after promising that the full House would get to vote to start any such inquiry. No such vote was taken. Democrats were furious that such an investigation was started.

On his social media, McCarthy routinely blasted Democrats as socialists hell-bent on ruining America. Yet when two financial crises confronted the nation in recent months — the national debt limit and the federal budget — McCarthy found a way to compromise with Democrats to get deals that were needed.

But those deals were cited by the hard-right Republicans as evidence that McCarthy should not remain the speaker.

One could feel sorry for McCarthy because the narrow margin he had to work with made his job seemingly impossible.

But there is no excuse for the deference he paid to Trump nor the blind ambition he showed to become speaker. McCarthy cast his lot with Trump and Trumpism, and now joins the ranks of people broken by their association with the worst president in U.S. history.