The stupid party - today's edition

 How's this for announcing to the world that turf battles are more important to you than principles?

A band of House conservatives mounted an extraordinary rebellion against their own party leaders on Tuesday, venting their angst over the recent debt limit fight with a surprise protest that derailed the chamber floor.

Republican leaders spent nearly an hour working to resolve the standoff with their right flank, which disrupted the party’s plans to pass legislation protecting gas stoves from potential government bans. But ultimately, roughly a dozen conservatives — most of them members of the Trump-aligned House Freedom Caucus — voted against moving forward on a bill they support.

The move was entirely unexpected by senior Republicans, according to two people close to leadership. And some GOP lawmakers feared it might be just the beginning of a conservative drive to undercut Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s team unless, as some of Tuesday’s rebels put it, McCarthy keeps to promises he made in order to win the House’s top gavel in January.

A few points need to be made:

• The cutting-off-nose-to-spite-face cliche is glaringly apt here. This was a major opportunity for House Pubs to show that they knew just what the Left's agenda is here: using climate alarmism as a tool for tyranny. It was absolutely juicy. It would have made for just the kind of news stories and pundit-world conversations sorely needed at this moment. 
• I'm no fan of Kevin McCarthy. I lost any modicum of respect for him when he made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago mere weeks after his screaming-match phone conversation  with the Very Stable Genius from the House floor on the afternoon of January 6. But he exercised some deft leadership - within the context of what passes for leadership these days - when he cobbled together the votes to get the debt-ceiling agreement passed.
• Per my phrase "what passes for leadership these days," yes, I'm aware it's a brand-aid, and we'll be right back at this juncture in January 2025. And everybody, even those who are kidding themselves otherwise, knows exactly why: Social Security and Medicare are awash in unfunded liabilities. 
• This emboldens the yay-hoo flank of the Republican Party. Those folks salivate for the moment at which Trump stomps all challengers into the dust and strides victorious onto the nominee's podium at the Pub convention next year. 
• These Freedom Caucus people are not conservatives, and not just  because they sabotaged some very good legislation. They aren't capable of the coherence required to form a conservative vision of any depth or viability. 

There's. whole lot of infantilism to go around in post-America. I guess it's too much to expect one of our two major parties to mount a countervailing force.