News reports: Is McCarthy’s stunning departure GOP deja vu?

McCarthy seemed relieved to be stepping aside.

It was in the final weeks of 1998 when House Speaker Newt
Gingrich abruptly announced his resignation followed by a shocking decision, announced
on the House floor, by Republican Speaker-designate Bob Livingston that he,
too, would be resigning.

At the time, most pundits offered this breathless
conclusion: This was such a whirlwind of events, we’ll never see anything like
it again in our lifetimes.

And one of those similarities may have been abandoning a
shot at the speakership to avoid an old-fashioned Washington sex scandal. (More
on that later.)

False prophets and cannibalism

What followed were bitter Gingrich remarks that echo the “false
prophets” description of  divisive
Republicans in the current Congress by Boehner.

Here’s how The Washington Post described the situation in
November ‘98:

“(The GOP is) a party awash in recriminations. In a
conference call with Republican colleagues, Gingrich talked about how ‘we need
to purge the poisons from the system.’

“Faced with the narrowest House majority in 33 years,
Gingrich bitterly denounced fellow Republicans who used him as a post-election
whipping boy: ‘The ones you see on TV are hateful,’ he told members. ‘I am
willing to lead, but I won’t allow cannibalism.’”

‘Must set the example’

Rumors swirled at the time that Livingston might be outed
for having an extramarital affair, but no one anticipated what he was about to
say. I remember sitting on the edge of my chair listening and thinking: “Is he
saying what I think he’s saying?”

Livingston

Livingston called on Clinton to resign the presidency and
then he began remarking about his own plans: “I was prepared to lead our
narrow (GOP) majority as speaker, and I believe I had it in me to do a fine job.
But I cannot do that job or be the kind of leader that I would like to be under
current circumstances. So I must set the example that I hope President Clinton
will follow. I will not stand for speaker of the House on Jan. 6.”

And much like Livingston’s decision to avoid elaboration
or to address the rumors, House Majority Leader McCarthy offered minimal
explanation for his turnabout. And he brushed aside newly circulating rumors
that he was walking away from the speakership to avoid exposing himself to
reports about marital infidelity.

Unmistakable undercurrent
Yet, there is an unmistakable undercurrent on Capitol
Hill.
Here’s what Michael Calderone reported in The Huffington Post:

“In the hours before House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy
(R-Calif.) abruptly withdrew his candidacy to be the next speaker of the House,
he was sent an email from a conservative activist threatening to expose an
alleged affair with a colleague. The subject line: ‘Kevin, why not resign like
Bob Livingston?’

“The email, sent just after 8 a.m. on Thursday, came from Steve Baer, a
Chicago-based GOP donor known for mass-emailing conservative figures and
Republican lawmakers. It was addressed to McCarthy and numerous others,
including the personal account of Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.), who conservative
media sites have suggested is tied romantically to McCarthy.”


Rep. Ellmers

“I think that the new media errs sometimes in being
overzealous and imprudent and the old media errs in being stodgy and not
fulfilling its (responsibility) to viewers and readers,” Lewis said. “It was
stunning what happened today and people are looking for answers to something
that seems unexplainable. And the truth is that insiders and media elites all
over DC are talking about these rumors — and some fairly prominent people are
blogging about it.”

So often, history repeats itself in Washington. But no
one could have imagined the prospect of this kind of repetition in the time and
space of less than two decades.