Phil, I might go one step further. If you’re Kevin McCarthy, and you’ve spent most of your adult life wanting to be speaker of the House, and it slipped through your fingers in 2015 and now it is eluding you again, after you, in your own words, “earned it,” and you’ve been treated as the de facto speaker for several months, even moving into the speaker’s office, only to be denied it one more time . . . or seven more times . . . how much do you want to stay in Congress?
What is left for McCarthy to do in Congress as a non-speaker? Does he want to be just another member after being majority whip, majority leader, and minority leader? How would he feel, watching one of his buddies like Steve Scalise doing the job he’s wanted to have for so long?
McCarthy’s not a policy wonk. He’s not that much of an ideologue, with the fervent passion of a zealot. He’s adapted, from the Tea Party era to the tumult of the Trump years to the role of leader of the opposition during the Biden presidency. He sees himself as a leader, a strategist, and a dealmaker. There’s no committee chairmanship that would be a desired consolation prize.
If he can’t play the role of a leader in the House . . . how much will McCarthy want to be there?
McCarthy’s district is the most heavily Republican in the state of California. If he were to resign his seat, another Republican would replace him. Of course, any absence would complicate life for the person who becomes speaker, as Republicans would have 221 members instead of 222, at least for a little while.