ANALYSIS: Why the House Speaker Drama Should Scare You

— -- It will go down as one of the supreme ironies of this era in politics that the same forces that empowered Republicans to near-record gains in Congress consumed the very people tapped to lead those majorities.

The question now is what additional damage these forces will do, at a perilous time for the Republican Party and even American democracy.

A House that can’t elect a leader can hardly be expected to fund the government and raise the debt limit, much less deal with crises that aren’t self-inflicted. Governing in the year before a presidential election is hard enough when the governing bodies have leaders actually in place.

The tea party movement -– borne out of a backlash to President Obama, and fomented by a powerful anger and frustration at politics in general -– has now taken out a House speaker and two would-be House speakers, in Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy. That feat is more impressive for the fact that these are Republicans taking down other Republicans.

The unprecedented tumult sets up a scary period on Capitol Hill and well beyond. The legislative branch of government is effectively paralyzed, unable to even choose a House speaker.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., himself considering a run for the job, said the fact is that no individual could muster the number of votes needed to be elected, leaving the House essentially stuck and without a plan.

"If they could get 218 today,” Westmoreland said Thursday afternoon, “they would be a magician.”

The next speaker will need something in the realm of magic to successfully navigate the next few months. Key votes loom on keeping government running and allowing the treasury to repay debts already accrued -– fundamental functions of Congress that seem impossibly difficult in the current climate.

The tea party-aligned House Freedom Caucus is in no mood to compromise, fresh off of what its members view as victories based on principled stands. The diminished band of establishment and moderate Republicans, meanwhile, are warning against giving ground to what they view as extreme elements.

House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan may well be convinced to take a job he has insisted he doesn’t want. But even his selection is highly unlikely to unite a fractured and fractious Republican House majority.

Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., a leader of the tea party wing in Congress, said he is skeptical of the idea of the House elevating Ryan simply because current House leaders or anyone else in leadership view him as the right fit.

“Two speakers lost in two weeks,” he said. “The establishment lost twice.”

The House continues to have a speaker, of course. John Boehner may have to stay around longer than anticipated, though tea-party forces continue to threaten to oust him if he is seen as advancing an agenda they don’t agree with.

“This institution cannot grind to a halt,” Boehner said Friday, firmly and somewhat hopefully.

Another irony not lost on House members is that the forces that loathe Boehner may wind up keeping him around a while longer. Suddenly, the dysfunction that seemed to prevail just weeks ago doesn’t look so bad by comparison.