Kevin McCarthy’s decision to leave office a year early is strange, even given the embarrassment he suffered in becoming the only House speaker in history to be voted out of the job.
McCarthy, after his ouster from the powerful post, said he planned to remain in Congress, representing the California district from which he was reelected in 2022. His early departure seems like a delayed case of hurt feelings.
McCarthy, though, has no one but himself to blame for his short tenure as House speaker.
In order to secure that top spot, he made concessions to the ultraright fringe of the Republican Party that were bound to spell his doom the first time he crossed that implacable group. With it taking only one disgruntled member to trigger a vote to remove him as speaker, the conclusion was foreordained.
McCarthy says he will be serving America in new but unspecified ways. Time will tell whether he really does that or serves himself, as most former members of Congress do, by cashing in on his connections.
