What if Congress can do for the economy and the world? Speaking with the Gaetzes: The Case of Matt Gaetz in 2004

But if his gamble succeeds, Mr. McCarthy may finally do the country a service by proving that bipartisanship works, effectively shutting up the braying band of right-wing extremists who have been agents of chaos since the moment the current House took office in January. They opposed the agreement to prevent a credit default, but Mr. McCarthy and a bipartisan coalition prevailed. He appeared to join them for a while in rejecting that deal during the shutdown crisis, but just hours before the government was set to close its doors on Saturday, he put a stopgap measure on the House floor that drew the votes of most Republicans and all but one Democrat. The hard-liners were left in the cold.

A small amount of credit. Congress will struggle to pay for a year’s worth of government operations after he agreed to a 45 day deal on Saturday. And there is no excuse for the damage this deal could do to Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression, by leaving out the military aid that the Biden administration was planning to send.

The sin of working with Democrats has now led the loudest extremist, Matt Gaetz of Florida, to promise a vote this week to remove Mr. McCarthy as speaker. If Mr. McCarthy can survive that vote — and he will probably need the votes of a few Democrats to do so — the wrecking-ball caucus will have to slink into the shadows of defeat. No one would be more pleased with that outcome than the core of House Republicans, who are profoundly weary of being shouted down by the Matt Gaetzes of the world.

I had the opportunity to return to Congress in 2004, but the Tea Party attacked me for supporting President George W. Bush’s rescue of the banks, as well as voting against the troop surge in Iraq out of conservative concern. (My son had gotten to me on climate change. A House Science Committee trip to Antarctica had shown me the evidence. And on another Science Committee trip at the Great Barrier Reef, an Aussie climate scientist had inspired me with his desire to love God and love people by making conservation changes in his own life.)

In the six years that followed, I returned to the practice of law and watched the congressional action from the audience’s perspective. I cringed when I watched the mistakes that I had made.