Kevin McCarthy Defies Expectations

Playbook: “There was a time when many House watchers — us included — speculated that McCarthy was a dead man walking. After all, he’d become speaker in the most humiliating way imaginable, begging conservatives to give him a shot at his dream job over the course of 15 ballots.”

“Now, nearly four months in, McCarthy appears to have proven his naysayers wrong — at least for now. By passing a debt ceiling increase with Republican votes yesterday, he clinched a major victory that eluded his GOP predecessors Paul Ryan and John Boehner, who struggled mightily to navigate internal tensions between conservatives and moderates…”

“What’s been just as astounding is the praise McCarthy’s gotten from the members who drove the hardest bargain during the gavel fight — and stand ready to expel him should he take a false step. The plaudits continued yesterday, even after McCarthy engaged in the kind of late-night, closed-door, last-minute dealmaking that they’d demanded an end to.”