Wednesday's Woeful Absurdities: Is the GOP Really That Big of a Mess?

The vote to elect a speaker in the U.S. House of Representatives went to 3 ballots yesterday, and the media is filled with stories about how happy the Democrats are, and what a huge mess the GOP has become. Why, it’s the first time in 100 years that a speaker was not elected on the first ballot, don’t you know? Egads these Republicans are such nasty heathens, are they not?

But is the Republican party really any more of a mess than it normally is, and has been for decades? Not really. What is happening in the speaker’s race is, after all, the price of real ideological diversity within the House Republican conference. The small remaining faction of ideological conservatives in that conference don’t like Kevin McCarthy, and never have.

McCarthy spent the day yesterday characterizing these 20 or so fellow Rs as being a bunch of selfish jerks who are opposing the will of the vast majority, and that probably isn’t helping to calm their passions. By the same token, McCarthy’s 200 or so supporters are properly pissed off at this small minority for gumming up the process despite the fact that McCarthy agreed to all manner of concessions on the House rules that must be approved before the session can get underway, some of which could be damaging to his speakership.