Now that Kevin McCarthy has captured the Speakership by agreeing to the demands of his most extreme members, it is worth looking at what happened and how he missed a rare opportunity to change the course of politics in the House.

McCarthy agreed to allow a “motion to vacate the chair” which means any one member at any time can move to unelect him as Speaker. This is a motion that is resolved by a majority of those voting. Hence, if five Republicans and the 213 Democrats all vote to vacate the chair, we get to have a new election for Speaker.

He also agreed to give his tormentors seats on the Rules Committee. The reason that matters is that in the House, the Rules Committee is the traffic cop on legislation. As Speaker, to lose control of this committee is to lose control of the Floor.

Finally, he gave them a series of rules changes regarding notice and amendments which actually make sense. Unfortunately, they can all be waived and will be as this Congress becomes as dysfunctional as its predecessors.

What else could he have done? Well, if he had approached the Democrats with a deal focusing on bi-partisan approaches to several issues, getting 20 Democrats to vote “present” would have done the trick. This would have pissed off some of his supporters, but giving the crazies in his own party the power to disrupt everything was far worse and a missed opportunity to try and get governing in Congress back on track.

It was too much to expect from a guy who went to Mara Lago shortly after January 6 to kiss Trump’s ring.

Only when he is overwhelmed by his own party extremists and abandoned by Trump will it be obvious to him that he made a tragic error.  And to those of you who thought the old Republican Party was back, remember that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan were key allies of McCarthy.

This will all give new meaning to the idea that you reap what you sow.