This is part of an excellent op-ed by Dana Milbank in The Washington Post:
What a gas!
A week ago, Speaker Kevin McCarthy was king of the world. “Tonight we all made history,” the California Republican announced after the bipartisan debt deal sailed through the House. “There’s a whole new day here,” he proclaimed.
He then proceeded to do the legislative equivalent of slipping on a banana peel, pulling down the drapes, knocking over a fully laden buffet and face-planting into the wedding cake.
Just six daysafter his triumph, a small band of right-wing zealots who opposed the debt deal used parliamentary tactics to bring proceedings on the House floor to a halt, in the first protest of its kind in more than two decades. They shut down the House for a couple of hours, then for the entire day, then for the next day. After 6 p.m. on Wednesday, House GOP leaders surrendered to the saboteurs with a whip notice: “Members are advised that votes are no longer expected in the House this week. … Thank you all for your patience.”
The mutineers were in command of the ship. They blamed McCarthy for betraying them. McCarthy blamed Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Scalise blamed McCarthy. Negotiations went nowhere. And the People’s House ceased to function.
