Just when it appeared American politics had reached peak weirdness with a soon-to-be nonagenarian and a convicted fraudster likely to face off for the presidency in 2024, a Republican clique has colluded with the Democrats to sack their own speaker.
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The most reasonable explanation for this bizarre, and self-defeating action, can be found - believe it or not - in a famous line from 2008's The Dark Knight.
Michael Caine's Alfred is trying to explain to Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne why he can't understand Heath Ledger's Joker.
"Some men just want to watch the world burn," Alfred says.
That certainly seems an apt description of the eight Republicans led by Matt Gaetz, a far-right Republican from Florida with strong links to Trump, who voted with the Democrats on a motion for the house speaker to vacate the chair.
Gaetz, for the record, is under investigation by the house ethics committee for alleged sexual misconduct and misuse of funds.
While the motion was initiated by the Republicans, no Democrats voted to support Kevin McCarthy, making him the first House of Representatives speaker in US history to be ousted from his position.
This, given McCarthy's departure has sparked a constitutional crisis that could bring the house to a standstill for weeks - depending on how long it takes for a new speaker to be chosen, may backfire on them badly.
While the Democrats have said their refusal to support McCarthy was because he broke an agreement on spending with President Biden in May, this overlooks the hard work the speaker has done to keep the house - and the government - functioning.
They seem to have forgotten the reason Gaetz and the other Trump minions wanted McCarthy gone is because of the deal he struck with the Democrats on a temporary spending bill to avert a US government shutdown hours before the deadline.
Gaetz has also accused McCarthy of reaching a secret agreement with President Biden on aid for Ukraine - something many Republicans actively oppose - as part of that funding deal.
McCarthy, who took a record 15 rounds of voting over two days to secure the position because of opposition from within Republican ranks in January, has always been between a rock and a hard place.
It is rather disingenuous of the Democrats, who lost control of the House of Representatives at the 2022 mid-term elections, to execute payback on a man who has done his best to keep the government on an even keel.
What was McCarthy's real offence in the eyes of most Democrats?
Acceding to pressure from within his own party by launching an impeachment investigation into the President.
He was always going to be damned if he did and damned if he didn't.
McCarthy, like many "trimmers" down the ages, is now being accused of breaches of faith by both sides for simply trying to broker agreements between warring parties and factions.
The peacemakers, despite scriptural assertions to the contrary, are seldom blessed; certainly not in this world at least.
So what does the future hold? November 7 is the deadline for the next government shutdown. If a new speaker has not been appointed by then the business of government will grind to a halt.
And who will the next speaker be? That's a question the Democrats don't seem to have considered.
Whoever takes McCarthy's place will be far less likely to work across the aisle given the fate of their predecessor.
There is much truth in the saying "better the devil you know than the devil you don't".
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