Last night's development that Steve Scalise has dropped out of the Speaker race was only surprising as a matter of timing. It was going to happen eventually, it's just surprising it happened without a floor vote. As Josh Marshall notes, this is part and parcel of the Republican Party's abandonment of basic democratic principles, especially among the Chaos Caucus and Trumpenproletariat. If you lose an election - like Jim Jordan did - then you concede and congratulation your opponent and everyone agrees to abide by the result. As Marshall says, that's pretty much the definition of a caucus. Put another way, there are almost certainly a dozen or more Democrats who think they'd be a better leader than Hakeem Jeffries; politicians are ambitious animals with no shortage of ego. If we ever have another Speaker vote, however, every Democrat will vote for Jeffries, because he won the caucus vote.
The Chaos Caucus is simply an extension of Trump's petulant tantrums as a form of politics. The lesson the GOP learned from Trump's "inside straight" in 2016 was that what were once considered career-ending transgressions are not just clickbait and fund raising opportunities. (Think Trump raising money off his fucking mug shot.) The reason most GOP House members are furious at Gaetz and the rest of the wrecking crew is that they know exactly why Gaetz is doing this (notoriety, money, clicks), because they would likely do the same in different circumstances.
If I had to make a prediction, I'd say the most likely Republican to become Speaker is Elise Stefanik. She's embraced enough of the crazy and attached her lips most assiduously to Trump's ass, but she's also got enough cred with the mainstream. Having said that, if we go another week or two - and we very much could - then I could see a cohort of about ten to fifteen Republicans voting "present" and letting Jeffries slip into office at least for a spell to pass a CR and perhaps aid to Israel and Ukraine.
The fact that tens of millions of Americans will vote for this dysfunctional party is appalling.
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