Steve Scalise’s 24 hours of humiliation

For a brief moment, many Republicans hoped the party’s nomination of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) for speaker of the House could quickly unite their fractious conference.

That was a pipe dream.

Scalise narrowly triumphed Wednesday in the first step of the speaker election process, an internal vote among House Republicans. That win meant he’d be the party’s nominee for the next step: the speaker election vote on the House floor.

But on Thursday, the extent of the difficulty he’ll face in attaining the near-unanimous House GOP support he needs for that floor...