US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ousted

The 55th speaker of the House of Representatives was booted out in a shock vote brought by rebels in his own party who have seethed in the nine months since McCarthy narrowly quelled their attempts to block him and managed to claim the most powerful job in Congress.

No other speaker — a position second in line from the presidency in the federal hierarchy — has been ousted in US history.

It was an undignified end — for now, at least — to an unstable, unauthoritative tenure by a lawmaker who made his mark as a so-called conservative “Young Gun,” only to get battered by his party’s shifting political currents.

Like many in Congress, he had berated Trump after the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot. But the ambitious lawmaker sensed the winds changing and quickly reversed himself, making a public trip down to Florida to make peace with Trump — thereby securing crucial support for his speakership ambitions.

Once McCarthy, 58, got what he wanted, though, he faced an uncomfortable reality: his grip on power would from then on be at the whim of his party’s burn-down-the-house hardliners.

Compromise Kills

In May he strode into a tense standoff with Democratic President Joe Biden over authorizing an extension of the national debt limit.

He struck an 11th-hour deal to avert a catastrophic US debt default, and while he hailed it as a victory for conservatives — and good governance — he faced a backlash from hardliners who said he had made too many concessions on spending cuts.

His limited engagement with Democrats was again the subject of the far-right’s ire last week when he used votes from the rival party to stave off a government shutdown.

The move defied hardliners — and Trump — who advocated harsh tactics in pursuit of forcing massive spending cuts and bringing down the country’s $31-trillion-plus debt burden.

AFP

Bi