This entire exercise in crazy needs to come to an end. But that leads to the question, was this entire exercise worth it, if in the end, the lateral move of swapping out Kevin McCarthy for Steve Scalise was all that was achieved? What was the point, if all that ends up happening is promoting the House Majority Leader, the natural successor to the Speaker, to the Speakership?

As you can see, Matt Gaetz is perfectly fine with it. What did he get out of this? A whole lot of media exposure and fundraising. So, was this about “muh principles” for Gaetz, or was this a personal pique against Kevin McCarthy that he managed to parlay into a huge profile boost for himself? You make the call. Obviously, he sees McCarthy and Scalise as different, right??? Do the American people see it that way? Or was this entire thing just a power flex and an ego boost for Matt Gaetz? Because that is certainly what it looks like right now. …

Does anyone feel like the entire country just got punk’d by Matt Gaetz, and the only one walking away happy about any of this is Matt Gaetz?

[Yup. The choice came down to two of McCarthy’s lieutenants, both of whom supported McCarthy against Gaetz, and neither of whom plans to do much different. Pointless. — Ed]