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As recently as September, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy boasted, “I never quit.” In hindsight, perhaps “never” was the wrong choice of words. NBC News reported this morning:
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who this fall became the first speaker to be ousted from power in the middle of a congressional term, said Wednesday he will resign from office at the end of this month.
The California Republican made the announcement in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he bragged about a variety of bills that passed the House before being rejected in the Senate.
“It is in this spirit that I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways,” McCarthy wrote. “I know my work is only getting started.”
A half-hour after the op-ed was published online, the former speaker released a video message on his decision.
As a matter of legislative arithmetic, this is hardly good news for GOP leaders. A week ago, the House Republican conference had 222 members, which meant on any given vote, the majority could only afford to lose four of its own members. Late last week, former Rep. George Santos was expelled, which left the conference with 221. After McCarthy exits later this month, the number will fall to 220.
Though there's some ambiguity as to when Republican Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio will step down to become Youngstown State University’s new president, it's possible we'll soon see the GOP conference shrink to 219 — in a chamber where it takes 218 votes to pass anything.
But as the former House speaker prepares to walk away from Capitol Hill altogether, it’s also worth appreciating just how badly the last year has gone for the longtime Republican congressman.
After the GOP secured a majority in the 2022 midterm elections, McCarthy probably felt quite a bit of optimism about the road ahead. He’d soon move into the big office and wield the powerful gavel. The possibilities were great.
At least, that is, in theory.
Exactly a year ago today, however, McCarthy learned that he’d face an intra-party challenge for speaker. A month later, he suffered through an extended — and rather humiliating — process in which it took McCarthy a whopping 15 ballots to take control of the chamber.
In the months that followed, the then-speaker struggled mightily to do his profoundly difficult job. As regular readers know, McCarthy made promises he didn’t keep. He negotiated and agreed to a rules package that tied his hands. He made contradictory commitments to different factions. He thought he’d persevere by appeasing the radicals in his midst — and soon learned otherwise.
McCarthy picked fights he couldn’t win. He failed to count well. He pushed vulnerable members to cast difficult votes for no benefit. He directed his conference to focus on foolish trivialities. He lied to and about Democrats, whose support he eventually needed. He never learned the value of making plans, preferring instead to “wing it” in the hopes of surviving the day, becoming a chess player who only thought one move at a time.
Perhaps most importantly, McCarthy re-embraced Donald Trump, effectively positioning the former president as a party leader adjacent to the speaker’s office, thereby allowing a MAGA vision to steer his conference — only to see Trump abandon him when McCarthy needed him most.
To the extent that the Californian will have a legacy, it’s not an impressive one. McCarthy had effectively no legislative accomplishments before he became speaker, and he struggled to pass major bills during his tenure. All the while, the Republican earned a reputation for weakness.
Five months before his death, the Washington Post’s Michael Gerson, George W. Bush’s former chief speechwriter, argued in a column, “Whatever his political future, McCarthy will be remembered as his generation’s most pathetic, unprincipled and contemptible political figure.”
It’s a line with ongoing relevance.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.