Don't give brats like Gaetz any more attention than they deserve (which is zero)

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy must be a glutton for punishment. I don’t know why else he would want the job of wrangling a herd of unruly Republicans. But he seems to like the challenge and wants to keep it. 

He showed us this weekend why he deserves to stay in his leadership role, thankless as the job seems.

McCarthy evaded a government shutdown, which many had thought was inevitable given a few GOP House members who like making noise simply for the sake of doing so. 

One of those Republicans is Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida ,who is doing his darnedest to win the most obnoxious member of Congress award. It’s a high bar these days, on both sides of the aisle, given all the competition. 

McCarthy got a shutdown victory, and now Gaetz wants him gone

Thank goodness McCarthy had enough of Gaetz and his ilk standing in his way of getting anything done. After doing everything he could to rally his narrow majority of Republicans to pass something, McCarthy decided to go with a more bipartisan approach.

Gaetz, much like his GOP colleague Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (aka MTG) of Georgia, has been referred to as a “conservative hardliner.” Yet, Gaetz and MTG don’t deserve the label “conservative.” That implies standing for ideals that actually mean something. Gaetz and MTG don't stand for anything but themselves (which makes sense, since they’ve modeled their political careers after the master of this behavior: former President Donald Trump). 

And it worked. 

McCarthy was able to get through a stop-gap measure – a continuing resolution – that will fund the government through the middle of November at current levels.

It essentially means that this fight will happen all over again in another month, but in the meantime it saves the country from the unnecessary unease of a shutdown.

That was the right move for McCarthy to make, even though he knew it would come with consequences like Gaetz trying to oust him. 

In his personal publicity tour over the weekend, Gaetz said this week he would file a motion to vacate against McCarthy – congressional lingo for attempting to force a vote to fire the speaker from the leadership post. He followed through on that threat Monday night.

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Perhaps Gaetz needs a refresher course in math, because he doesn’t appear to understand that unless Republicans work together given their small majority, their ability to do anything in a divided government is nil. 

New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler on Friday summed up Gaetz’ behavior well after Republicans failed to pass their own continuing resolution.

“Unfortunately a handful of people and in particular a party of one, Matt Gaetz, have chosen to put his own agenda, his own personal agenda above all else,” Lawler said to reporters. “There's only one person to blame for any potential government shutdown and that's Matt Gaetz. He’s not a conservative Republican. He’s a charlatan.”

Moment of truth for Democrats and GOP

If Gaetz is able to get a vote to fire McCarthy to the House floor, it will be telling how Democrats handle it. It takes only a simple majority to oust a speaker, and it would take Democratic votes to do so, since McCarthy has wide support among Republicans. 

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Sure, Democrats may be miffed that McCarthy green-lighted an impeachment inquiry into possible corruption and influence-peddling among the Biden family, including President Joe Biden himself. 

But do they want to risk what may happen if McCarthy is fired? Who else may they have to work with? Gaetz? MTG?

Democrats may enjoy watching the meltdown among Republicans, but encouraging more dysfunction is certainly not in the country’s best interest.

This also is a real moment of truth for Republicans. They must decide what kind of party they will be: One that panders to populism and self-serving politicians like Trump and Gaetz – or one that stands behind actual conservative ideals and principled leadership like McCarthy has demonstrated.  

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at Paste BN. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques