LARRY KUDLOW: Most sane people wish this Speaker McCarthy motion-to-vacate episode didn't happen

For sure, most sane people wish this Speaker McCarthy motion-to-vacate episode didn't happen. Most sane people know that the eight votes to remove Mr. McCarthy were from insurrectionists; or as Mark Levin put it last night, anarchists; or as The Wall Street Journal called them, "modern performance artists," because there was no substance to their complaint.  

They generated a national kabuki theater for about 48 hours. It's a sad tale, but Kevin McCarthy showed everyone what a class act he is. He did the right things and, in my view, he's going to Heaven. Now, having said all that, what's done is done and it's time to move on.   

The liberal media is piling on, claiming that Republicans can't govern, they're cutting off their own heads, and the House has become a clown show. All this stuff is simply not true. The GOP House members have a terrific opportunity to show the world that, in fact, they can govern. That they can keep it together.   

They will elect a new speaker from a crop of superbly qualified conservative House leaders. The next speaker will insist on changing the rule to vacate the chair, and then, the GOP will finish the appropriations job and complete, under regular budget order, for the remaining eight funding bills.   

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They've already covered 80% of the total spending package. Then they'll send these bills over to the Senate, and here's the rub: The Chuck Schumer Senate has completed zero appropriations bills. Zero, and we're going to ask Sen. Rand Paul about that later in the show, but if there's another shutdown after Nov. 17, it will be the Schumer-led Democratic senators who are to blame.   

The next Republican speaker should make this funding point absolutely clear: The Republican House will do its job, and so far, the Democratic Senate is flunking the test. Then, the GOP will hang tough on measures such as their H.R. 2 bill to close the border and also make it very clear that any additional Ukraine funding must be accompanied by instructions to seek a diplomatic outcome.   

This is something the Biden-Schumer Democrats have completely failed to do or even propose. It's the Biden-Schumer war right now and the GOP can seize the high ground with diplomatic instructions and, let's not forget, the House Republicans passed an excellent energy bill, H.R. 1 — actually unveiled on this show — which would reopen the fossil fuel spigots and bring back the Trump permitting reforms.   

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Plus, the House Republicans passed an excellent parental rights bill. Republican leaders should be emphasizing these accomplishments that occurred under Kevin McCarthy's speakership, and then forge ahead and push their conservative reforms, including a conservative budget.   

In other words, they can get it together, and they can govern. They will choose a speaker next week, and then get moving on a new conservative course that will stop Biden's big government socialism and its attack on successful businesses, large and small, stop the command-and-control economy, stop the war against middle-class affordability and put America first, for a change. That's my riff.   

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the October 4, 2023, edition of "Kudlow."