Two numbers define the last year in politics. The first is 15, for the 15 votes it took in January to confirm a Republican Speaker of the House. The second is three, for when the House shut down in October for three weeks, thanks to the ouster of that same Speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
The driving force behind each of these events is my "Politician of the Year" for 2023: Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Gaetz deserves a place in history. He is a living monument to an era of elected Republican officials with no interest in governing.
Gaetz stood out in a year when politics often was locked into whatever is trending on social media. Two right-wing internet sensations — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) — gave him a run for the title with their crass, public name-calling match on the floor of the House.
The bold lying by Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) also defined the year in the House. And McCarthy himself reached for the title of shameful political actor when he allegedly elbowed Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.).
But Gaetz takes the prize, for successfully paralyzing the House for the entire year.
With his hands on the wheel and driving toward revenge and chaos — all to raise his personal profile and stir up small, online donations — Gaetz crashed the House of Representatives in a ditch on a low road.
As a result of his tactics, the people's House, one of the world's great democratic institutions, is now commonly derided by citizens on the left and right as a clown show.
With no signature ideas for problem-solving, Gaetz invested his energy in stalling all legislative efforts by the other 435 elected members of the House to improve life in the nation.
His party’s failure is on the scoreboard. They did not pass any politically significant legislation.
Democrats provided the majority of votes to pass a budget deal in the spring, a temporary spending bill in September and a short-term funding deal to avoid a government shutdown in November.
“One thing — I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing…one meaningful, significant thing the Republican majority has done…,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said earlier this month.
This all began with Gaetz’ desire to punish McCarthy.
The former Speaker says publicly that Gaetz wanted him to halt a congressional ethics investigation into accusations that Gaetz had been involved in sex trafficking.
A two-year-long criminal investigation into the charges ended in February with the Justice Department declining to press charges against the Florida congressman.
But Joel Greenberg, a Gaetz associate, was sentenced to 11 years in jail on charges that included trafficking a minor for sex.
“He’s blaming me for an ethics complaint against him,” McCarthy explained on CNBC. “I had nothing to do with it. He wants me to wipe [the ethics investigation] away. I’m not going to do that. That’s illegal.”
Gaetz’ bullying refusal to allow Republicans to select McCarthy as speaker led Rep. Mike Rogers (R- Ala.) to reach for his throat on the House floor during the 14-vote marathon.
McCarthy won the Speakers’ gavel on the 15th ballot after agreeing to Gaetz’s demand that any one member of Congress could force a vote to vacate the speaker’s chair.
Gaetz filed that motion in October and led a group of far-right Republicans to oust McCarthy. He even raised campaign donations online by trumpeting his undermining of McCarthy.
The ouster proved successful. But it took three weeks for the House GOP caucus to settle on Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as a new Speaker.
Speaker Johnson then proposed a funding plan with the same outlines to avoid a federal government shutdown. It was basically the same plan that led Gaetz to call for McCarthy to thrown out.
It did not cut spending. And it failed to address GOP priorities that have support from Democrats, such as increased funding for Israel’s war effort and U.S. border security.
Gaetz has been mentioned as a Republican candidate for Florida Governor in 2026 when incumbent Gov. DeSantis is term limited.
And now Gaetz is threatening to oust Johnson.
"Again, if we are seven months into the Mike Johnson speakership and we've only moved a single-subject spending bill, then Mike Johnson would likely face a similar fate," he said.
Gaetz’s reveling in his role as provocateur is dangerous and corrosive. But he sees success in the party’s continued allegiance to former president Trump. Gaetz stands with Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen. And he is trying to rewrite the history of January 6 by casting the Capitol rioters as martyrs.
Gaetz would have more credibility, and his words would carry more impact, if he had opposed Trump’s regressive tax cuts, which exploded the deficit.
His influence, his antics and his embrace of chaos over governance are part of the reason why so many Members are bolting for the exits. As we go to press, thirty House members — 19 Democrats and 11 Republicans — have announced that they will not seek reelection next year.
Gaetz represents the empty heart of a Trump-led party that is only about Trump.
As we look to 2024, Gaetz and other Trump acolytes make up a disturbing preview of the future of the GOP. For that reason, Gaetz is 2023’s Politician of the Year.
Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.
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