ANALYSIS: GOP Speaker Controversy Did Not Plunge the House into Chaos

The men who wrote the U.S. Constitution expected political disruption, so they designed a system to resolve it peaceably and in due order.

House Republican leaders Steve Scalise (R-La.) (L) and Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) talk in the House Chamber during the fourth day of elections for speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Jan. 6, 2023. Win McNamee/Getty Images

News Analysis

Shortly after now-former Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted on Oct. 3 in a historic first, mainstream media was flooded with alarms such as The New York Times’ declaration that “the House [was] plunged into chaos” and “paralyzed until a successor is chosen.”