Months of bad blood between McCarthy and Democrats help sink his speakership

Kevin McCarthy learned a painful lesson: There’s a price to pay for helping set fire to an institution and then asking the fire department to come save your office.

The California Republican spent nine months as House speaker trying to placate an intractable group of hard-right Republicans, bowing to their demands in ways that hurt the House as an institution. They were never satisfied and turned on McCarthy, setting in motion Tuesday’s vote to expel him as speaker.

By late Monday, after enough Republicans had made their intentions known, it was clear that McCarthy could not win just from votes on his side of the aisle, as is the House tradition. So he turned to Democrats to ask for help putting out the fire of an internal GOP rebellion that he helped start.