How Did That Motion to Vacate Thing Work Out for the Democrats?
Now, as you can see, Johnson—the new speaker—is considerably to the right of McCarthy. Even people who doubt GovTrack’s methods should be able to conclude as much from the fact that McCarthy is from California and Johnson is from Louisiana. So, what Democrats achieved was a three-week disruption of Congress and a the selection of a more conservative, less-moderate Speaker. It is not clear exactly how this disruption really benefits them given that they control the White House and Senate. I suppose it makes the Republicans look bad temporarily; however, all such appearances are likely to be forgotten by election time.
The vote to remove McCarthy was an own goal, just as I predicted. I believe it was created by coordination problems on the part of the Democrats and that McCarthy could have saved himself simply by delaying the vote. Indeed, the vote may never have had to be taken. However, if the decision to vote out McCarthy was strategic on the part of the Democrats, the Democratic leadership is missing large parts of the picture.
Johnson is likely to be even less compromising than McCarthy was: Not only is he intrinsically more conservative, but he just witnessed what can happen when you cross party lines. One can only hope there is not a repetition of this, or Gaetz himself might end up becoming Speaker.
The upshot of this whole fiasco will be that Biden will find himself even more legislatively hampered going into the 2024 election.