The ousting of Kevin McCarthy: bad for America, worse for Ukraine

TWO MONTHS before the French revolution in 1789, Congress met for the first time, in New York City’s Federal Hall. In the intervening 234 years no speaker of the House of Representatives has been removed by a motion to vacate—until this week, when a small cadre of Republicans ejected Kevin McCarthy. Mr McCarthy had only had the gig since January. But the House Republican Party exists in a state of permanent revolution. All of the past three Republican speakers have been hounded by their own side. The parliamentary point that did for Mr McCarthy in the end was arcane, but its consequences are not.