Yesterday, House Republicans made history of a sort by being the first party to throw out its own Speaker of the House. The following synopsis of events was edited from an online discussion by historian Heather Cox Richardson and from other sources.  

Ever since Kevin McCarthy made a deal with the extremists in his conference to win the speakership after Republicans took control of the House last January, he has catered to those extremists in an apparent bid to hold on to his position. He gave them key positions on committees, he permitted them to introduce extreme measures and load up bills with poison pills that meant the bills could never make it through Congress, and he recently allowed them to open unsubstantiated impeachment hearings against Joe Biden.

But the extremists were not appeased and continued to bully McCarthy, and they resented a deal he cut with Biden to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a default. When their refusal to pass either appropriations bills or a continuing resolution to buy more time to pass those bills meant the U.S. was hours away from a government shutdown, McCarthy finally had to rely on the Democrats for help passing a continuing resolution. 

A shutdown would have hurt the country and, in so doing, would have benefited the criminally indicted, twice-impeached former president Trump, to whom the extremists are loyal.      

Yesterday, they challenged McCarthy’s leadership, apparently with the expectation that the Democrats would step in to save McCarthy’s job, although it is traditionally the majority party that determines its leader. McCarthy did reach out to Democrats for votes to support his speakership, but they pointed out McCarthy’s constant caving to the MAGA Republicans and said it's the Republicans own responsibility to end their Civil War. 

Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries told the Democratic caucus to vote "yes" on the Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair. In all, 216 members of Congress voted to remove McCarthy while 210 voted to keep him in the speaker’s chair. Eight Republicans voted with the Democrats to toss him aside, making him the first speaker ever removed from office. 

The result was a surprise to many Republicans, and they are turning their fury at their own debacle on the Democrats, blaming them for not stepping in to fix the Republicans’ mess. 

Speakers provide a list of people to become temporary speakers in case of emergency, and the gavel has passed to Patrick McHenry, who has power only to recess, adjourn, and hold votes for a new speaker. Yet one of McHenry’s first official acts was to order former speaker Nancy Pelosi to vacate her private Capitol office by tomorrow, announcing that he was having the room rekeyed. 

Her Capitol office is known as a "hideaway" because it is a second office. She has an office in the Cannon Office Building, as do other House members, across the street and connected to the Capitol via pedestrian tunnel. But it's a traditional courtesy for former speakers and some members of opposition leadership to be given office space near the House Chamber, especially if they are older, so they don't have to travel all the way to the Cannon during House sessions. Pelosi, the first female speaker in history, is 83. McHenry also evicted two-time former Democratic majority leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, age 84.

Pelosi was not even in D.C. for today’s votes. She's in California for the memorial services for the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. 

Many see McCarthy's fingerprints all over this silly decision, revenge for the Democrats' refusal to save his speakership. But McHenry’s action is unlikely to make the Democrats more eager to work with the Republicans. Pelosi noted that this “sharp departure from tradition” seemed a surprising first move with "all the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting….” 

The continuing resolution to fund the government runs out shortly before Thanksgiving, and funding for Ukraine has an even shorter time frame than that. The House cannot do business without a speaker, and each day this chaos continues is a victory for the extremists who are eager to stop a government that does anything other than their own bidding, even as it highlights the Republicans' inability to govern.

There is no apparent plan for moving forward, and the House has recessed for the rest of the week, putting off a new speaker fight, McCarthy says he will not run for speaker again, but Jim Jordan has declared his candidacy for speaker. 

Jordan gives Trump a run for his money on the sheer number of lies, mischaracterizations, exaggerations, and misinformation that he peddles daily. The number of times that CNN host Jake Tapper had to correct what he said was absurd and he's not been on that show since. Tapper is known for refusing to have on guests who lie, but maybe it's Jordan who's staying away because he resents being fact-checked and corrected. And then there's the Ohio State wrestling team abuse scandal, in which at least 14 former wrestlers say that when Jordan was an assistant coach with the program from 1987 to 1995, he was aware that the team doctor, Richard Strauss, was sexually abusing players but didn't report it. Jordan denies it, of course.  

This afternoon, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who had been lining up support and counting votes, also announced that he's running, while Kevin Hern of Oklahoma is mulling his options. Scalise supports continued aid for Ukraine while Jordan adamantly opposes it. Hern also supports it, but only if there is an exit plan attached to that aid. 

McHenry plans to hold a candidates' forum early next week.