Republican suicide

OPINION:

A version of this story appeared in the On Background newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive On Background delivered directly to your inbox each Friday.

Let’s start with some political realities.

The red wave that was supposed to carry Republicans to a vast majority in the House of Representatives last year never materialized. While the GOP did wrest the House from Democratic control, voters gave the party a slim, five-seat margin.

Democrats retain the Senate, and President Biden resides in the White House. In January, after a grueling 15 rounds of voting, Republicans elected Kevin McCarthy as House speaker after exacting some hefty and meaningful concessions.

For the first time in Mr. Biden’s presidency, House Republicans took action to hold the administration accountable. There were hearings where Gold Star families recounted the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, where Big Tech titans were questioned about censorship, and where Border Patrol agents testified about the ramifications of not enforcing our immigration laws.

The House passed bills that banned biological males from competing with females in athletic events, cut federal spending and funded increased border security. An impeachment inquiry was launched to investigate the Biden family’s overseas business deals. FBI and IRS whistleblowers were called to Capitol Hill to testify.

Now all that work is in jeopardy, and it’s hard to discern why. Eight Republicans teamed up with a unified Democratic coalition to oust Mr. McCarthy as House speaker without first having a well-articulated plan to deal with the consequences of their action.

Could Rep. Hakeem Jeffries become the next speaker? It’s entirely plausible. All Democrats need to do is peel away five centrist Republicans to hand the gavel to their colleague from New York, or to someone he supports.

Could Sen. Patty Murray become the next president of the United States? It’s not out of the realm of possibility, considering that this president is not exactly a model of vigor, and vacating the speaker’s chair moved the Washington Democrat up to third in the line of succession.

Republicans intend to meet next week to see if they can agree on a new speaker. Mr. McCarthy has taken himself out of the running, and names such as Steve Scalise, the House majority leader, and Jim Jordan of Ohio have been batted about as possible replacements.

Mr. Scalise has blood cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. He has been largely absent on Capitol Hill as he takes the time he needs to recover.

Mr. Jordan would be a great pick, although it’s unclear if his political staff and operation can handle the immense task of leading the legislative branch while maintaining the delicate balance needed to secure the votes of those pesky Republicans who were elected in districts Mr. Biden carried.

Whoever ends up holding the gavel will immediately face a potential government shutdown — the same shutdown Mr. McCarthy averted and lost his speakership over.

The fundamentals of the situation haven’t changed: With only a five-seat margin, the GOP-majority House does not have the votes to score major conservative victories, such as drastically cutting the federal budget. That means that compromise is inevitable, and that no representative is ever going to be happy with the end result.

It’s called governing, and Republicans proved this week that they’re not up to the task.

Disunity is defeat. Unless the GOP can somehow pull together in the week ahead, it may have just paved the road for increased Democratic power in a chamber that voters entrusted to Republicans.