Whether that leads to more conservative policymaking depends on which members you ask; many are skeptical the results will be all that different for the House GOP given their slim majority.

One question we don’t know the answer to yet, and won’t know for some time, is how permanent these negotiated changes will be. Proponents made a heavy push for the idea that these shifts were necessary to take on “the Swamp.” But the next Congress does not need to retain these rule changes; nor is any new speaker obliged to honor any of the handshake obligations McCarthy made to get this job.

If McCarthy is undermined as speaker thanks to these concessions, some will argue that they should be done away with by future Republican majorities. And if Democrats win the House back in 2024 — not something outside the realm of possibility — this week’s debacle will have been a lot of noise with a very brief impact.

[Honestly, what is there to lose? The House wasn’t going to get conservative legislation into law anyway; Democrats still control the Senate and White House. Why not try this for a session and see how it works, especially to open the process and restore regular order? — Ed]