US Speaker shambles bodes ill

Not since 1923 has there been a shambles over the election of a new Speaker of the US House of Representatives such as the embarrassing spectacle being witnessed in Washington this week. Even Donald Trump, no shrinking violet when it comes to creating chaos, appears appalled by the antics of the so-called Taliban 20 and Never Kevin hard-right Republican congressmen and women blocking the path to the speakership (and to become second in line to the presidency) of Republican majority leader Kevin McCarthy. “DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT,” Mr Trump, writing in capital letters, warned fellow Republicans as they failed after a sixth vote to use their small majority – won in last November’s midterm election – to take over the Speaker’s chair vacated by the Democrats’ Nancy Pelosi.

The irony of Mr Trump’s intervention, which was aimed at backing Mr McCarthy, could not have been more remarkable. Virtually all the Taliban 20 congressmen and women owe their political lives to Mr Trump. They are ardent supporters of his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Eighteen are returning members who, as election deniers, voted against certification of the electoral college count on January 6, 2021, that confirmed Joe Biden as President.

Following the Republicans’ 222-212 victory in the November midterms, the rump of hard-right congressmen and women appears hellbent on keeping Mr McCarthy out of the Speaker’s chair, even though he is supported by Mr Trump. They despise Mr McCarthy for no discernible reason beyond that, in their eyes, he is not conservative enough. They accuse him of not doing enough to fight “radical leftists” and see him as being too willing to work cooperatively with the Biden administration and Democrat-controlled Senate. Mr McCarthy may oppose abortion rights, back gun rights and be committed to cutting government spending, but that has done nothing to assuage the views of those determined to scupper his candidacy even if, in doing so, they harm the Republican Party and the country. Six successive votes on Wednesday and Thursday AEDT left no doubt about just what a dog’s breakfast the election had become. The final vote before the house adjourned showed the limits of Mr Trump’s influence amid his faltering campaign to return to the White House.

With Republicans having failed against all expectations to win the Senate from Mr Biden, control of the house was supposed to provide them with the powerful platform they wanted to expose the shortcomings of the Biden administration and its failure on specific issues such as the anarchy that has developed over migration on the southern US border and the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden.

By gaining control of the house, Republicans won an invaluable two years in the majority to show American voters they are capable of legislating and governing better than the Democrats and better than the Biden administration. Doing so would have boosted their prospects for next year’s presidential election. Instead of taking that opportunity, however, Republicans have mired themselves in the sort of incomprehensible mess that raises the question: why would anyone want to take the job of Speaker? Agreeing on a new Speaker was always going to be one of the easier issues they faced after retaking control. Instead, the speakership shambles has become a nightmare for Republicans.