a lot of people i speak to who aren't deeply involved in american politics are a little confused about what, exactly, is up with the house republicans these days. why did kevin mccarthy remove himself from the running for speaker without even having a vote? and if the problem with mccarthy is that he wasn't conservative enough, why are people talking about paul ryan <u+2014> who isn't any more conservative than mccarthy <u+2014> as possibly being able to step into the breach? what, in other words, is actually going on?









it's awkward for the media because a key element of the story is a wild allegation for which nobody in journalism seems to have any evidence.









but it's clear at this point that the rumors <u+2014> whether or not they are true <u+2014> have started to play an important role in big-picture american politics. so here goes. people are saying that mccarthy, who is married, is (or was in the past) having an affair with renee ellmers, a married republican member of congress from north carolina.









mccarthy's opponents on the right helped shove him out of the race by threatening to elevate this rumor from capitol hill gossip to national news. this explains why he bowed out without insisting on a vote, and it also explains why people think a person with mccarthy-like views might be able to squeak in.









i have no idea, and nobody else seems to either. it's obviously in neither party's interest to admit it if it is true, but it's also not the kind of thing they would easily be able to disprove if it weren't true. but politico's team of congressional correspondents reports that ellmers has thanked colleagues for their "prayers and support," and earlier this week her lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to gotnews, the website that originally published the rumors, calling them defamatory.









nobody thinks the alleged affair is the actual reason<u+00a0>mccarthy faced opposition in his quest for the speaker's gavel. rather, the affair seems to be a tool that his enemies inside the caucus and in the larger movement used against him.









it's a tool that works on two levels:









the affair allegations matter, in other words, because they raise the possibility that the freedom caucus doesn't actually have the votes necessary to block an establishment-friendly choice for speaker from obtaining the 218 votes needed to take over. it's possible that the affair allegations were a crucial difference maker <u+2014> either in driving a few votes away from mccarthy or in driving him from the field even though he had 218 supporters <u+2014> and that paul ryan or some other figure could unite the party without saying or doing anything substantively different from what mccarthy has done.
the affair allegations that derailed kevin mccarthy's quest for the speakership, explained
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