Winston Churchill warned: You can’t reason with a tiger if your head is in its mouth. Impeached Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy should have heard it.

At least that’s apparently what Churchill said. We do know for sure that actor Gary Oldman, who plays the British leader, said this powerfully in the film Darkest Hour. Churchill was incredible who anyone would consider negotiating with

Adolf

Hitler.

McCarthy’s tiger that swallowed him was a political animal hungry for attention, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), backed by a small group of far-right Republican mutineers. They complained that the Republican speaker too often reached across the aisle and engaged with the opposition party, as the Founders envisioned when they created our democratic form of government.

We have built this country on bipartisan compromise, or little of significance gets done in government, at least when the two parties are closely aligned, as has been the case in Washington in recent years.

I don’t regret standing up for choosing governance over resentment, McCarthy

(R-Bakersfield)

told reporters immediately after it was dumped last week. Our government is designed for compromise. I do not regret my efforts to build coalitions and find solutions. I was raised to solve problems, not create them.

This sounded like the McCarthy that Sacramento Pols remembers twenty years ago, the widely respected, pragmatic, moderate young minority leader of the California State Assembly. Many have wondered what happened to that man, as Washington McCarthy seems to bear little resemblance.

But let’s be realistic. Sacramento also bears little resemblance to Washington, especially these days. More about that below.

McCarthy put his head in the tiger’s mouth when he agreed to accept the house rules that proved fatal. This was his prize for securing enough right-wing votes to be elected chairman in January.

One particularly deadly rule allowed only one member of the House of Representatives to call for a vote to impeach the speaker. Gaetz had pushed for the one-vote rule and ultimately used it to defeat McCarthy.

There is another quote from Churchill that is relevant to McCarthy’s downfall. The statesman said: A conciliator is one who feeds a crocodile in the hope that it will eat it last.

McCarthy made concession after concession in a desperate attempt to crack down on the Republican Party

–

liners and save his speakership. He fed the crocodile a steady diet of Democrats before being eaten himself.

Ultimately, 208 Democrats joined eight Republicans with less than 4% of Republican members, who defeated McCarthy.

Would the Democrats have saved McCarthy if he hadn’t shot at them so cheaply?

By planting hardliners, McCarthy launched a frivolous impeachment inquiry against President Biden. And bowing to the MAGA Republicans, the speaker allowed a rare censure from House Rep. Adam

b.

Schiff (D-Burbank) for his role in exposing alleged collusion between former President Trump and Russia. Schiff also led the first impeachment of Trump. Schiff and other Democrats were knocked out of committees.

On the good government side, McCarthy compromised

President

Biden and the Democrats twice to prevent the US from defaulting on its debt and to keep the doors of the government open. That’s what irritated GOP Republicans.

On balance, didn’t McCarthy deserve to be spared by the Democrats?

You can’t blame Democrats for voting against McCarthy, says Jim Brulte, a former California Republican chairman and Republican leader in both legislative chambers. If you are in the minority and the majority is going to wage war against themselves, sit back and let them do it.

Yes, that’s politics. If you get an opportunity to make the other side look incompetent and stupid, you take it.

But former Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who later became mayor of San Francisco, told me that Democrats should have fought on McCarthy’s behalf against those right-wing crazy people, because his successor would undoubtedly be worse.

The Democrats must have been at lunch when they took their stand, Brown says.

But McCarthy earned a reputation in Washington as a leader who could not be trusted. He would make deals and break them. That’s about the worst sin there is in a legislative body.

We don’t trust him. The members don’t trust him. His word is worthless, Schiff told reporters.

You’ve never heard that about McCarthy in Sacramento. He went with everyone.

Kevin was a team player, said Bulte, who was Senate Republican leader when McCarthy led the Assembly Republicans. He always tried to keep people together. He was a fantastic leader when I worked with him.

Kevin dedicated his entire life to becoming a leader, recalls political consultant Rob Stutzman, who was one

Than-

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s communications director when McCarthy was minority leader. He brought a sophistication of political leadership that I had not seen before: he recruited candidates and raised money.

But in Sacramento, McCarthy was not the speaker. He was the minority leader. And he didn’t have to lead a fanatical group of ideologues.

His experience in Sacramento did not come across as well as in Washington, notes Fabian Nunez, who was the Democratic Assembly speaker when McCarthy was minority leader. I thought he was very formidable in Sacramento.

As minority leader in the Assembly, McCarthy benefited from serving under a popular Republican governor. Schwarzenegger strengthened McCarthy’s relevance and influence.

In Congress, as minority leader, McCarthy was smothered by Trump and felt forced to kiss his ring incessantly. That earned him disrespect among Democrats.

Moreover, the nation is plagued and Congress is today paralyzed by political polarization that was not nearly as severe two decades ago.

McCarthy made the history books by becoming the 55th speaker, realizing a career dream. Then it turned into a nightmare when he made even bigger history: He became the first speaker to be fired by a vote of the members of the House of Representatives.

Ambition got the best of him. It made him put his head in the tiger’s mouth.