Republicans In Disarray

Democrats pounce.

Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash.

While Republicans in Congress nervously watch the clock and wonder how erstwhile frontrunner for Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) can possibly pull off a win after losing seven consecutive ballots, Democrats are licking their metaphorical chops over this first test, and failure, of Republican Party leadership.

The chaos has led some in the press to gleefully speculate over the possibility Democrats may get to choose the next House Speaker after all. If Republicans can’t get behind McCarthy, and if they can’t get behind Rep. Steve Scalise, who is most likely to be nominated should McCarthy fail; if Democrats can convince enough Republicans to cross party lines to vote for Hakeem Jeffries, and if Jeffries can get all the Democrats to cooperate: It might happen.

But that’s a lot of ifs.

The media outlets entertaining this far-fetched idea are generally the same media outlets that have spent the last six years predicting — with increasing, rather than diminishing certainty — the imminent political demise and arrest of former President Donald J. Trump.

It’s hard to blame the Democratic Party for enjoying this a bit, however.

Usually, it is the Democratic Party in disarray. From the embarrassing administration of the recent elections in the state of…