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"How did you go bankrupt?" a character asks in one of Ernest Hemingway's classic novels. "Gradually," was the famous response. "Then suddenly."
And so it is for the politically and morally bankrupt Kevin McCarthy.
On Tuesday, he was voted out of his job as House speaker — a first in the nation's history — in a summary execution induced by a small band of far-right Republicans, who were gladly aided and abetted by vengeance-minded Democrats.
The moment, for all its drama, seemed ordained from the instant McCarthy barely won the position.
Power and responsibility didn't remold the man, or summon deep reserves of character and wisdom. There is a hollowness at McCarthy's core, which has long been evident, and it left him empty and bereft as he fought to stay in power.
He never cared much about passing laws or enacting policy. He never exhibited a deep-seated set of beliefs, beyond what it took to win an election. Rather, McCarthy's engine was his personal ambition. His principles were just another chip to be tossed onto the table in negotiations.