Yesterday the House of Representatives voted to vacate Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. This vote was called by Matt Gaetz, a member of a far-right faction of the Republican caucus, who were upset with him for negotiating with Democrats to pass a short-term spending bill to avoid a federal government shutdown.
In the vote, Democrats were unanimous and only 8 Republicans were in favor; due to the GOP's slim majority in the House, this was enough for it to pass.
I don't understand why the Democrats wanted him out of the position. He seems to be relatively moderate, which allowed deals to be made earlier this year to increase the debt limit, and this week to prevent the shutdown. It's not clear who is likely to replace him, but what was wrong with the "devil you know"?
When this session of Congress opened, it took 4 days to elect the Speaker, and I suspect we're likely to see something similar when they try to choose his successor. Aren't they just making things worse, when they're supposed to be working on the budget before the next deadline? They have less than 2 months, and this will waste at least a week.
They could have just allowed the hard-liners to call the vote to vacate, and let that tiny faction vote against McCarthy and lose in disgrace. Instead, they handed a win to their most vocal opponents.
