As chaos on Capitol Hill worsened this week, there have been all kinds of quotes from bewildered congressional Republicans, many of whom are struggling — not only to find their footing, but also to explain the absurdity of the circumstances.
But as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise launched a futile effort to secure support from his own conference, The New York Times published a quote that stood out for me.
“I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this phrase: ‘This has never happened before,’” said Representative Juan Ciscomani, a first-term Republican from Arizona.
I’m mindful of the fact that “unprecedented” is a word that should be used with caution. History is filled with amazing stories, many of which go overlooked, and those who overuse the word “unprecedented” often find that unfolding events have forgotten parallels.
That said, those who’ve told Ciscomani of late that recent developments have “never happened before” have been entirely correct.
To be sure, the year has been filled with oddities. When Kevin McCarthy struggled through multiple, excruciating rounds of balloting in order to get the House speaker’s gavel, it was historically rare, but not unheard of.
But when House members managed to oust McCarthy last week, relying on motion-to-vacate rules that McCarthy agreed to in January, that was something different: No sitting House speaker had ever been ousted in the middle of a term. This was something that has “never happened before.”
A week later, Scalise ended his own bid for speaker literally one day after his party voted to nominate him for the position. Other speaker-designates have bowed out before getting the gavel — see the Bob Livingston example from 1998 — but the circumstances surrounding Scalise were entirely new: The Louisiana Republican received his party’s backing one day, only to discover that too many of his GOP colleagues refused to accept him a day later.
The Washington Post published an interesting analysis this week, reflecting on other “historic milestones” resulting from the House Republicans’ “internal chaos,” and it highlighted related examples. What’s more, away from Capitol Hill, the GOP’s most dominant voice — Donald Trump, who also happens to be the front-runner for the Republicans’ 2024 nomination — is dealing with four criminal indictments and an ongoing civil trial related to his controversial Trump Organization business operation. This has “never happened before,” either. For observers who enjoy seeing developments no one has ever witnessed before, it’s quite a time to be following American politics.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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