Speaker McCarthy: A weakened leader or emboldened survivor?

McCarthy staked his political career on the early backing of Trump, and it was the former president who delivered when needed, making late phone calls to holdouts and “helping get those final votes.” When it was finally over, when McCarthy walked into the speaker’s office at the Capitol, the sign bearing his name already was hanging.

Plenty of tests await.

Congress faces an agenda of must-pass bills to fund the government, restock a military whose supplies have been depleted by decades of war and aid to Ukraine, authorize farming programs and raise the nation’s borrowing limit to avert an unprecedented federal default.

For the first time as president, Biden will face a divided government, with the House in Republican hands and the Senate still controlled, though narrowly, by Democrats.

Divided government can be a time of bipartisan deal-making as the parties come together to accomplish big priorities. But more often it results in brinkmanship that has led to stalemates, standoffs, and shutdowns.

House Republicans are eager to confront Biden with oversight of the White House’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, the COVID-19 crisis, and other issues, along with investigations of Biden, his family, and his administration.

“I came to Washington to challenge the status quo,” wrote Republican Bob Good of Virginia in an op-ed before his many votes against McCarthy. “I intend to keep that promise.” Good was one of six Republican who voted “present” in the final roll call.

McCarthy has been here before.

In 2011, tea party Republicans took control of the House, confronting the agenda of President Barack Obama and his vice president, Biden. The movement opposed the Washington political establishment and espoused a conservative and libertarian philosophy, advocating for less spending, lower taxes, and reducing the national debt and budget deficit.

McCarthy helped recruit the tea party class, and he went on to become the third-ranking Republican, part of the “Young Guns” with Ryan of Wisconsin and then-Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia.

Fueled by the tea party, they went on to lead House Republicans into crisis after crisis with efforts to cut federal spending during the “fiscal cliff” of 2012 and federal shutdowns in 2013 as they tried to repeal Obama’s health care program.

In 2015, when then-Rep. Mark Meadows, the North Carolina Republican who led the Freedom Caucus and later served as Trump’s last chief of staff, threatened a “motion to vacate the chair” — a vote to oust the speaker — Boehner chose early retirement.

McCarthy tried to take Boehner’s place, but he dropped out of the race when it was clear he would not have support from conservatives. Ryan ended up with the job. But he, too, retired in the Trump era.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did away with the “vacate the chair” rule when Democrats regained the majority in 2019. A seasoned legislator who had made history as the first woman to be speaker, Pelosi ran the House with the strength of experience.

McCarthy has been in office for 15 years, half as long as Pelosi when she first took the helm, and with far fewer legislative victories to speak of. In talks over the past week with the hard-liners, he was forced to reinstate the “motion to vacate the chair” to win over the holdouts. They can now hold it over him every single day.

“If a CEO is not doing the job, you can fire him — same thing in politics,” said Republican Ralph Norman of South Carolina, one of the holdouts McCarthy won over with the rules changes.

The chaos that erupted on the House floor this past week may end up as a prelude to the Congress to come.

“What you saw over the last week,” Norman said, “is how democracy works.”