It's been exactly 100 years since the House of Representatives failed to elect a speaker on the first chamber vote. So much for precedent. On Tuesday, members of the incoming Republican House majority couldn't elect a speaker after three full rounds of voting, marking a historic humiliation for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, of California, the House GOP leader and to this point the only plausible candidate.
The last time the speaker's contest required more than one ballot was in 1923, when it took lawmakers nine ballots to seat Rep. Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts. As NBC News' Allan Smith pointed out Tuesday, contentious speakership elections aren't unheard of. Even the GOP's meltdown on Tuesday is no match for the most brutal race for speaker, which spanned two months and 122 votes, with House control ultimately landing in the hands of the Know-Nothing Party in 1856.
