There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when House members were drilled by their leaders at the beginning of a new Congress on three unwritten party rules they were expected to obey without exception. First, always vote for your party’s nominee for Speaker; second, always support your party’s package of House rules proposed at the opening of a Congress; and, third, always vote for your party’s position on special rule resolutions from the Rules Committee that set the terms of debate and amendment on major legislation. The Rules Committee was known then, at least, as “the Speaker’s committee” because it reflected the leadership’s policy priorities and procedural means of considering them.

For a small group of hard-right junior Republicans, all three of those rules were tossed out of the window at the beginning of this 118th Congress. They first balked at electing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as Speaker over the course of four days and 14 ballots until they had wrested from him certain concessions on House rules changes and processes to which they wanted him to adhere.

Then, later in the second session, with help from minority Democrats, they adopted “a motion to vacate the chair (oust him as Speaker) because he had gone back on one of his earlier pledges to them. That was followed by several days of trying to elect a new Speaker. After rejecting on........

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