Centrist Dems leave McCarthy hanging without a lifeline

House Democratic centrists held the key to bailing out Kevin McCarthy. Yet in the end, he gave them no incentive to salvage his besieged speakership.

Most House Democrats were skeptical of the idea that they might save McCarthy from the hard-right rebellion that flared into his Tuesday ouster. Distrust of the now-former GOP speaker runs deep in the caucus, over everything from McCarthy’s push to impeach President Joe Biden to his courtship of former President Donald Trump after the violent Capitol riot.

Even so, a small band of old-school Democratic moderates...