I had a column all picked out and ready to go this morning. Then, just as I was about to write it up, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced Democrats won’t support Speaker McCarthy in his bid to retain the speakership. This makes it much more likely that Florida Republican Matt Gaetz’s motion to remove McCarthy could succeed. While McCarthy isn’t Democrats’ favorite Republican — he’s not even Republicans’ favorite Republican — this feels like a lost opportunity. For all his faults, McCarthy has proven to be something of a workhorse, wheeling and dealing with Democrats and the White House to avoid not just a looming default, but what was thought to be an inevitable shutdown. And now Jeffries has hung him out to dry in exchange for… well, that’s just it. Jeffries said in his announcement that Republicans have to nominate someone Democrats can work with, as if that isn’t the reason McCarthy is in danger of losing his job.

The country just dodged one unnecessary disaster. Rather than stop the next before it starts, Jeffries is catalyzing it. He’s doing what many prominent Democratic pundits and pols regularly accuse Republican lawmakers of — obstructing the work of government and then saying government isn’t working. The next budget deadline is less than a month and a half away. Can we really afford to lose any time picking a new Speaker?

With all that said, today’s featured piece (scroll down to the bolded section beginning with “Are Democrats better off…”) was written before Jeffries’ announcement. It’s from Democratic columnist Bill Scher, in which he laid out the case for why Jeffries and his caucus should support McCarthy. I’m posting it because, even though Jeffries apparently didn’t see Scher’s advice (that’s the only conceivable reason he isn’t following it), Republicans shouldn’t use the move to paint all Democrats as obstructionists. It wouldn’t be true, and it would only deepen the partisan divide. This is an unfortunate day, though. Saturday felt like a decent-sized step forward for functioning government. Today feels like a decent-sized step back.