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All Kevin McCarthy<\/strong> wanted<\/a> was to be Speaker of the House. Sure, he was never particularly good at political math. (Fifteen Speakership votes<\/a> made that clear.) But this past weekend, after cobbling together a last-ditch continuing resolution\u2014which kicked<\/a> the looming government shutdown another 45 days down the road\u2014the math, for McCarthy, finally added up.<\/p>\n That lasted a few days. McCarthy, in his desperation to become Speaker in January, tried to satisfy his far-right flank by reversing<\/a> a House rule so that any one member could bring up a motion to vacate and give up the gavel. Enter his longtime nemesis Matt Gaetz,<\/strong> who filed on Monday a motion to vacate that couldn\u2019t be stopped Tuesday afternoon on a procedural vote, setting the stage for some Republican-on-Republican violence. As Democrats watched, silently, unified, GOP members of Congress debated whether McCarthy should be kept or dumped. \u201cLooks like failure theater,\u201d Gaetz scoffed<\/a> at Jim Jordan<\/strong>\u2019s mention of the House Oversight Committee\u2019s investigatory efforts.<\/p>\n Next came the vote on whether to remove McCarthy, which passed 216 to 210, with eight Republicans voting \u201cyes.\u201d The House will need to choose a new Speaker, and it remains to be seen who Republicans nominate\u2014and if McCarthy is a contender\u2014as House Democrats will surely coalesce around Hakeem Jeffries,<\/strong> as they did in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth rewinding a bit to appreciate how rich this is: For the last several months, Gaetz and his fellow members of the chaos caucus have been courting a government shutdown by stonewalling several House funding bills that would keep the government open. Gaetz has largely done so by way of bluster, threatening to file a motion to vacate McCarthy if he doesn\u2019t bend the knee. And as late as Saturday morning, it seemed like the Speaker would cave\u2014largely thanks to Donald Trump,<\/strong> who has exhorted<\/a> Republicans to \u201cshut down the government\u201d if they \u201ccan\u2019t make an appropriate deal.\u201d<\/p>\n But then something miraculous happened: McCarthy\u2014yes, Kevin<\/em> McCarthy\u2014displayed a modicum of gumption. Instead of pushing hard-line spending cuts espoused by Gaetz and company, he floated a \u201cclean\u201d stopgap measure that would keep essential government organs running. Sure, he only gave Democrats little time to review it, which one Democratic<\/a> lawmaker reportedly<\/a> called \u201cthe dumbest political move I\u2019ve seen in a long time. You need us, you fucking idiot!\u201d And sure, it might have been 99% identical to the Senate\u2019s continuing resolution, which had sailed through the much saner upper chamber twice. But the point is: He passed the thing. \u201cWe funded the government and avoided all of the extreme, nasty, harmful cuts MAGA Republicans wanted,\u201d as Senator Chuck Schumer<\/strong> told me Monday. \u201cNo 30% cuts to things like health care. No cuts to the Social Security Administration. No cuts to nutrition programs for kids. Scores of poison pill, MAGA-inspired riders were removed.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Schumer had been telling McCarthy this was the only way to keep the government open all along. And it seems that after some hard thought, McCarthy conceded, perhaps calculating that mad voters are worse than an angry Trump. If you\u2019re thinking what I\u2019m thinking, then yes: That\u2019s quite a departure for someone so spineless as to kiss Trump\u2019s ring just weeks after condemning his role on January 6. So what gives?<\/p>\n Well, it might have a little something to do with a different\u2014and yet equally asinine\u2014Republican pet project: impeaching Joe Biden.<\/strong> Thursday\u2019s impeachment hearings went about as bad as they could have gone, with the conference\u2019s own two witnesses throwing cold water<\/a> on the entire affair. \u201cI do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment,\u201d as witness Jonathan Turley<\/strong> testified<\/a>. Bruce Dubinsky,<\/strong> the second witness, likewise argued<\/a> that \u201cI am not here today to even suggest that there was corruption, fraud, or any wrongdoing\u2026more information needs to be gathered before I can make such an assessment\u201d\u2014the assessment being whether Biden abused his office for his and his family\u2019s gain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n