Democrats’ cooperation in ousting McCarthy shows they have no interest in bipartisanship

A lot of politicians like to talk about bipartisanship these days.  People who are running for office in purple states or swing congressional districts are quick to tell everyone how willing and able they are to work “with the other side.”  To “reach across the aisle.” 

There is never a shortage of commentators who decry the lack of cooperation between the two political parties. Indeed, there is even a caucus — a bipartisan group, naturally — of lawmakers whose foundational premise is that what we need in this country is to neuter the extreme elements in both political camps so that the supposed silent majority of Americans in the middle can re-establish sanity in our government.

Of course, talk is cheap, especially in Washington. And if you really want to know what people mean and what they stand for, you cannot look to what they say.  You must look to what they do.

That is why the vote by House Democrats to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is so damning and so disheartening.

For months, Democrats decried the Speaker for kowtowing to the so-called radical right of his party. Ever since he was elected in January, they have accused him of cuddling up to a divisive former president. His supposedly hyper-partisan pursuit of oversight of President Joe Biden and his son has been a regular talking and fundraising point for them since it began.

Then, last week, the Speaker did something that caught a lot of people (myself included) off-guard:  he brought a truly bipartisan temporary funding bill to the floor.  The bill was so bipartisan that it ultimately garnered more Democratic than Republican votes. 

Not unexpectedly, that bipartisan bill triggered a motion to remove the Speaker. McCarthy likely knew that would happen when he brought the bill up for the vote. Indeed, he said so.

What was perhaps unexpected was how the Democrats would respond to that effort by dropping all pretense of desiring to work together. Every single one of them — even the ones allegedly claiming to be leading voices on the importance of bipartisanship and cooperation — voted to remove the Speaker. They cooperated in a plot to remove McCarthy for doing exactly what they claimed they wanted him to do.

Of course, I understand partisan politics. I have been elected to public office. I have served in a highly divisive administration, and I have been involved in some of the nastiest partisan battles of the last decade and a half in this town. I am no pollyanna about politics.  And I am not making the case that Democrats could or should be full-throated in their support for the leader of the other party. 

But there was a way out here that could have respected both partisan allegiances and a desire to see those parties work together. Democrats could have easily split their votes just enough to save McCarthy. They could have telegraphed that, if indeed there was a vote for Speaker, that they would support their own leader, Hakeem Jeffries, but that prior to that, they would have voted to table (kill) the motion to vacate, or simply abstained from the vote. 

A vote for Speaker is a personal matter.  A vote to table, however, is an institutional one.

What the Democrats did on Tuesday was to undermine the institution itself.  Indeed, it is hard to believe that the next Speaker, whoever that may be, would think for even a minute about bringing a bipartisan bill to the floor of the House after what they just did.

So, at the end of the day, the Democrats just told the country that their desire for bipartisanship is just a talking point. It is just a distraction from what they really want, which is to be in control again.  And you can bet that when that happens — and it will happen — they will be just as uninterested in bipartisanship as they were on Tuesday.

Bipartisanship is a word that doesn’t have much meaning these days in Washington.  Neither does the word “hypocrisy.” 

Mick Mulvaney, a former congressman from South Carolina, is a contributor to NewsNation. He served as director of the Office of Management and Budget, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and acting White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump.