In times of chaos and dissension, you will often hear pundits, professionals, and those who self-identify as serious call for an “adult in the room”. The “adult in the room” is a person willing to make difficult compromises, a person willing to sacrifice vanity for pragmatism, a person with a clear eye of their own priorities and needs and more determination to achieve them than a desire to make a point.
Over the past weeks, some have called for “an adult in the room” at the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives: as the House majority party fails, over and over again, to find a new speaker, having exiled Kevin McCarthy from the post on 3 October, it can seem that what the Republicans need is someone more level-headed and serious, someone willing to accept imperfect compromises and to subvert his own ego for the good of the party, someone who might even possess a quality that passes for dignity.
