Tuesday's vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House has been in the making since his painful election to the post in January. After 15 rounds of voting, McCarthy agreed to a new rule allowing a single member of the House, for any reason, at any time, to call for a vote for his removal. And that's what happened when he put the country ahead of his job on September 30 and brokered a compromise with Democrats to push through a stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown.

The hardliner Republicans who brought about his removal, led by alleged sex trafficker Matt Gaetz of Florida, say they voted to remove him because they wanted a more orderly and fiscally conservative budget process and an end to continuing resolutions (CRs). This is truly needed.

But this wasn't about a noble stand over fiscal responsibility. This was punishing McCarthy for: (1) working with the Democrats and (2) taking away their grenade-throwing opportunity to shut down the government.

The removal of McCarthy may signal a death knell for sane and sober budget reform in the House. In 2010, he, Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin were the so-called "Young Guns," a trio believed to be destined to shape long-term policy and notable for their views on fiscal restraint. The chaotic far-right minority branch of the GOP would be their undoing.

Cantor was an early casualty, defeated in 2014 by a Tea Party primary opponent. Ryan was elected Speaker in 2015 after John Boehner of Ohio relinquished the post in frustration at the far-right minority, but would opt to not run for re-election in 2018 out of frustration with the President Trump's chaotic leadership of the GOP and facing the likelihood of losing control of the House in the midterm elections.

McCarthy was the last of the group remaining and had to make tremendous concessions to gain his leadership post. The excruciating Speaker election process in January, which had up until then been a brief formality, was a bellwether for what the 118th Congress would be like.

As the Wall Street Journal editorial board pointed out in an aptly named editorial, "Republicans Cut Off Their Own Heads," four percent of the GOP caucus, led by Gaetz, just flipped over a table, Real Housewives-style, ousting the Speaker with no plan for a replacement, or really a plan for anything except chaos and dissent.

Congressman Mike Garcia (R-CA) summed Gaetz' tactics up well: "He's a Republican running with scissors." Garret Graves of Louisiana excoriated Gaetz on the House floor for using his motion to oust McCarthy to immediately solicit campaign donations. And former GOP Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post Tuesday calling for Gaetz' expulsion from the caucus.

When Newt Gingrich thinks you're obnoxious, that's something. While McCarthy seemed willing to let anybody stay for the sake of one more Republican vote, several GOP caucus members seem ready to expel Gaetz. The GOP caucus would not allow Gaetz to be seated with them during the vote to remove McCarthy. He had to cast his vote from the Democratic side of the chamber.

I will be watching what the new Speaker, whoever he or she may be, does regarding the ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz for alleged sexual misconduct and misuse of funds. Many believe that Gaetz held McCarthy accountable for the investigation proceeding.

Gaetz had been the subject of a federal criminal investigation for alleged sex trafficking that was eventually dropped on the grounds that the primary witness against him, his close associate Joel Greenberg, now in federal prison, was himself such a disreputable character that his statements about Gaetz would not likely hold up in court.

Gaetz, who purports to be a budget hawk, is one of Donald Trump's closest allies. As President, Trump ran some of the highest deficits ever, and has already pledged this year that if again elected, he will not touch Medicare or Social Security, both heading for insolvency in the next decade. Gaetz managed to stifle his need to trim the budget for four years of Trump's presidency; I expect he plans to take a similar selfless stance should Trump win in 2024.

The GOP has a week to elect a new Speaker. McCarthy has said he will not run again. Nine-term Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan has announced he is running; I immediately thought of him as the likeliest of successors. Currently chair of the House Judiciary Committee, he is more hardline than McCarthy and can possibly better control the far-right wing of the caucus.

A smart Speaker will eliminate the rule that ousted McCarthy, let the Ethics Committee continue its investigation, and at the very least sideline Gaetz by removing him from his committees. It's no less than what Liz Cheney endured, for far less grave transgressions.

Given the events of the last ten months against the last ten years and last three Republican Speakers the right question might not be who will be the next GOP caucus leader but can the leader get control of the caucus' lunatic fringe?

Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican, she lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and two of cat. She can be reached at news.ind.merritt@gmail.com.