Yesterday, we saw the House Republicans blow themselves up when they threw out Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. McCarthy was done in when 8 of his Republican colleagues voted to oust him, coupled with 208 Democrats. In the aftermath, McCarthy blamed the Democrats for his ouster rather than blame the guys who brought the motion to kick his ass to the curb.
While McCarthy's statements are largely sour grapes, it is also true that he seemed genuinely shocked that the Congressional Democratic Caucus wouldn't support him. After all, he had just pushed through a clean spending bill (which he previously promised he would push through, and then tried to renege, and then blamed Democrats for its passage). Other people have expressed concern that the actions of the Democrats in the House sends Congress into chaos.
But all that forgets the fact that Kevin McCarthy is a REPUBLICAN member of Congress. The party that put him into power is the REPUBLICAN PARTY. The members of Congress who made him Speaker of the House (after 15 votes) were REPUBLICANS. At no time did any Democrat support McCarthy. And why would they? He opened an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden despite any evidence of any wrongdoing. And McCarthy has been a partisan weasel his entire career. Not backing McCarthy was the most obvious play for the Democrats here. In fact, if the shoe was on the other foot, any Democratic Speaker would be considered foolish for counting on Republican votes to save their ass.
All of this leads me to another point that has been floating around in my discourse for awhile - the Democratic Party is a POLITICAL PARTY. Democratic politicians are going to act like partisan politicians. Democratic Party officials are going to act like political party officials. That should be the expected thing. Because that's how normal political parties operate.
I recognize that we are in very strange times, but the weird behavior is all coming from the Republican side of the aisle. McCarthy went down because unlike all other Speakers who have held the position, McCarthy failed to keep his backbenchers in check during the session. That's on him.
