Is it time for a new political party?

American politics hold few truly shocking moments. One came Thursday when Rep. Kevin McCarthy withdrew from the race for speaker of the House — a contest in which he was the presumptive winner.

Although the details behind McCarthy's shocking reversal remain unclear, it appears that he dropped out because of opposition from the right wing of the Republican Party. The 40 members of the Tea Party Patriots opposed McCarthy's moderate tone and threatened to sabotage his election, even if it meant throwing the race to a Democrat in the vote in the full House. The Tea Party crowd was willing to vote with the minority Democrats, presumably electing Nancy Pelosi speaker of the House, rather than allowing a moderate Republican (the folks they call RINOs — Republicans in Name Only) to become speaker.

In their convoluted thinking, it was better to have a liberal Democrat as speaker than to have a moderate Republican. They had to believe that a Speaker Pelosi would be better for conservative aims than a Speaker McCarthy.

The result is that the House of Representatives is in turmoil. Without an elected speaker, the House cannot effectively function (although you can argue that the House is not effectively functioning with John Boehner as speaker because he can't count on the votes of his own party, which holds a substantial majority). The Tea Party crowd forced Boehner's retirement as speaker. He just couldn't take it any more. Finding a Republican nominee for speaker may take weeks or longer. Who would satisfy the demands of the right wing and also have the capability of working with mainstream Republicans and even some Democrats to pass legislation and keep the federal government viable?

Perhaps it can't be done. Perhaps the Republicans have become so divided that they can no longer function as a single party. This could be a historic turning point in national politics. Perhaps the Tea Party Patriots should split from the GOP and form their own party.

It has happened before. The Republican Party itself was an offshoot of the Whig Party. There is no rule that only two major parties are allowed. That system has simply evolved. So long as the two parties would put national interest above partisan interests, the system worked, but lately all that has mattered in Washington has been the next election. Remember Mitch McConnell's proclamation that the primary goal of his Republican Senate was to deny Barak Obama a second term.

Congress has not passed a budget. A debt crisis that could cripple the economy lurks. A highway bill is needed to sustain road construction. Many other issues abound, but Congress is barricaded in an intra-party bloodbath.

Political parties have come and gone. There was the Federalist Party, the Anti-Masonic Party, the Free Soil Party, and the Know-Nothing Party. The Tea Party crowd could even think of bringing back that last name.

Coming next week: financial cataclysm

Six days from a fiscal cataclysm, Speaker of the House John Boehner can't keep enough of his GOP colleagues in the fold to pass his own legislation to raise the debt ceiling. Over on the Senate side, Majority Leader Harry Reid has thrown in the towel and is offering a half-hearted bill to raise the debt ceiling in return for some ephemeral spending cuts and no increases in revenue.

I watched President Obama's and Boehner's Monday night addresses — Boehner's live and Obama's via the Internet — and thought Obama came across more genuinely. Boehner made his political points but wasn't entirely honest in talking about a "bipartisan" House proposal and accusing Obama of wanting a "blank check." Boehner probably fired up the right wing while Obama was seeking a broader appeal, and he likely succeeded. His call for compromise was one most Americans would welcome, and although he couldn't resist parroting the Democrats' catch phrase about the rich paying their "fair share" of taxes, Obama's overall point was well taken. Obama was on much sounder ground and more persuasive in arguing that all Americans should share in the sacrifices necessary to get our fiscal house in order — the wealthy should feel the pain just as much as the poor who lose federal services or the middle class who pay more for college loans.

If this impasse continues and we get to next Wednesday with no debt ceiling bill in place, we will all regret it. America's credit rating will fall, and interest rates will rise. Our payments on the national debt will rise, and that will create even more federal debt or dismembering cuts to federal spending, including Social Security. Interest rates on mortgages and consumer loans will also rise, and that will throw us back into a deeper recession as home sales and car sales collapse. Business loans will be more expensive, and that will curtail jobs. The dollar will fall, and that will mean higher prices.

To the freshman Republicans who have vowed not to raise the debt ceiling, no matter what, and have fought any inclination Boehner might have to compromise, I can only ask: Are you happy yet? If all of this transpires, Democrats will be able to run in 2012 under the slogan "We're not crazy!" Of course, remembering Democratic congressmen Weiner and Wu, Republicans can counter with "We're not perverts (or at least haven't been caught at it)."