Kevin McCarthy wanted to be speaker of the House in the worst possible way, and that is precisely what he accomplished by winning the leadership post after 15 humiliating rounds of voting.
McCarthy may have once wanted to claim the mantle of a strong Republican majority.
McCarthy crawled into the speakership early Saturday after the GOP was barely in control.
McCarthy will spend his shaky tenure, as long as it lasts, balanced on a razor's edge because he surrendered so much to his enemies. There is one nick and he has left.
McCarthy's concessions leave the country hostage for the next two years to an extreme fringe of far-right extremists who threaten to turn the normal operation of government and such normally routine business into a cliff.
The snub by fellow lawmakers of the Bakersfield Republican's years of hard work as grand strategist and campaign manager for the House GOP was seen as cruel. It is impossible to sympathize with the torture of long balloting that was self-inflicted and glaring in the making.
The fecklessness of McCarthy has been well documented. The outrage he expressed at President Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot quickly melted into acceptance as McCarthy begged for forgiveness for having dared to hold the Oval Office.
The marshmallows are made of sterner material.
McCarthy has always been guided by one thing, and that is the acquisition of power and ascension to the leadership post that almost exceeded his grasp.
McCarthy has never been a big fan of policy. There isn't a landmark legislation that bears his thumbprint. His specialty is backslapping, glad-handing hail-fellow bonhomie that made him likable to fellow Republicans, but not someone they particularly respected.
There is nothing wrong with that, but it has never been more important than it is now. McCarthy has shown a man that his spine is bendable and that he is open to barter.
There are weather vans that are fixed.
McCarthy fought to keep GOP extremists at bay when he was a legislator. He embraced the GOP fringe, starting with the far-right "tea party" movement and continuing under the influence of Trump.
McCarthy helped bring a fire-spitting breed of anti-government, anti- establishment radicals into the GOP tent and then almost lost his end of the bargain when they turned against him.
The blandishments McCarthy might have offered to horse trade his way to the speakership meant little to those Republican holdouts who want nothing more than to burn Washington to the ground.
McCarthy was forced to pay a price in order to neuter himself.
Republicans who are less than 100% pure are referred to as Republican in name only. McCarthy has earned himself the dubious distinction of being speaker in name only.
Nancy Pelosi's rudderless soul and ham-fisted miscalculation stood in contrast to his.
While the San Francisco Democrat never ruled her caucus as a liberal, she was guided by a bone-deep set of left-leaning convictions that helped yield a series of victories. A set of guiding principles helped marshal the unruly woman on her side of the aisle
McCarthy's ability to get pushed around and capitulate to extortion was all he could prove. He won with a small margin.
McCarthy was too ambitious and blatantly transactional to be able to claim the prize he long sought.
According to Bob Good, one of the original and most fervent of the never-McCarthy Republicans, Kevin McCarthy is not a conservative. He floats with whatever he wants to say.
McCarthy's integrity was taken away a long time ago.
The price will have to be paid by the country.
The story was originally published in the LA Times.
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