The House GOP Is a Failed State

Back in January, when Kevin McCarthy started moving his stuff into the House speaker’s office before colleagues had actually voted him into the job, Matt Gaetz accused him of being “a squatter.”

That is the kind of raucous insult for which Gaetz has demonstrated special fluency. But give the Florida Republican his due: Squatter turned out to be a perfectly apt description of the now-former House speaker.

For nine months, McCarthy had the title and the gavel and a Capitol suite with a nice view. But he never really held...