Today’s political earthquake
“Over the last week it has become clear to me that our Conference is deeply divided and needs to unite behind one leader.”
— House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
Something happened in Washington today: The guy everyone thought would be the next House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, dropped out of the race — and it threw the GOP into absolute chaos.
The move was so unexpected and so disruptive that some politicians actually cried about it:
Seriously? Crying in the cloakroom?
Why is this such a big deal? Congress has a lot of work in the coming months, and the speaker is the person in the House running the show. The next speaker has the difficult job of figuring out a way to keep the government running and prevent a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt, all while dealing with deep party divisions that make it impossible to get anything done.
Adding to this mess is the lack of Republican House members who actually want the job and have enough support from other House Republicans to secure the role.
As for Speaker Boehner, it looks like his nightmare from last week is coming true:
“I had this terrible nightmare last night that I was trying to get out and I couldn’t get out.” — House Speaker John Boehner
We feel ya.
