McCarthy's Lesson in History: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

After the recent bipartisan deal funding the government for 45 more days, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., announced he would move to oust U.S. House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for working with Democrats.

The very idea that working with the other party is a major political flaw says a lot about our dysfunctional Congress.

McCarthy's leadership here could have paved the way to major improvements.

But unfortunately, Democrats in the House voted with anti-McCarthy Republicans to dethrone him from the speakership, despite his having risked his position in order to avoid shutting down the government.

The old truism clearly applies here: No good deed goes unpunished!

The Democrats' irresponsible action preserves a very unhappy status quo in Washington, D.C. and will make it even more difficult for our leaders to act as adults, as Kevin McCarthy had finally attempted to do.

Members of Congress who compromise with the other party in order to enact legislation are vulnerable to being "primaried."

Democrats fear being attacked in the next party primary for being insufficiently liberal, and Republicans fear primary challengers accusing them of not being conservative enough.

Moderates from both parties tend to vote mainly in general elections.

But the more extreme Democratic liberals and Republican conservatives reliably turn out to vote when the parties have separate primaries. This makes reasonable compromises difficult and politically dangerous for our elected leaders.

Rep. McCarthy was Speaker of the House, a responsible position in which he was legally next in line to succeed to the presidency after Vice President Kamala Harris.

But like his recent predecessors, he had been expected to act primarily as the leader of his own political party and only secondarily as leader of the whole House.

This did not necessarily need to be the case.

In Great Britain, for example, the Speaker of the House of Commons, like the U.S. counterpart, is elected by members of the current majority party.

But immediately upon election, the new speaker resigns from his or her party and presides in a completely non-partisan way.

It need not be necessary to copy the British model exactly, and the U.S. speaker would not need to resign from his or her party.

But Mr. McCarthy's recent experience working with Democrats to prevent a governmental shutdown suggested that a speaker could help both parties minimize the leverage of their more extreme members.

One need not be an uncritical fan of McCarthy to appreciate the opportunity which his recent deal with the Democrats created.

After all, in order to become speaker he capitulated to extreme demands from the ultra-conservative group that led the move to unseat him.

And until the very last minute, he had tried to accommodate this group.

He launched their demanded impeachment inquiry into President Biden, although this only whetted their appetite for blood. Then he tried to avoid a shutdown by enacting appropriations supported only by Republicans.

Only when this attempt failed did he reach out to make the deal, supported by Democrats and moderate Republicans, to fund the government for 45 more days.

But the success of this deal demonstrated a way forward from today's extreme political polarization in Washington.

Democrats should have appreciated what Speaker McCarthy did, even if only in desperation. They should not have cooperated with he extreme elements in his own party to oust him.

If the Democrats had prevented the ouster of McCarthy, it could have been a small move in the direction of the non-partisan British speakership.

It would have been ironic if Republicans seeking to oust Kevin McCarthy had produced a major reduction in today's political polarization!

Alas! We may now be in for major trouble when the 45 day reprieve from an irresponsible government shutdown, bestowed by Speaker McCarthy, comes to an end.

Paul F. deLespinasse is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Computer Science at Adrian College. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1966, and has been a National Merit Scholar, an NDEA Fellow, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and a Fellow in Law and Political Science at the Harvard Law School. His college textbook, "Thinking About Politics: American Government in Associational Perspective," was published in 1981. His most recent book is "The Case of the Racist Choir Conductor: Struggling With America's Original Sin." His columns have appeared in newspapers in Michigan, Oregon, and other states. Read more of his reports — Click Here Now.