The American tea party, joined by right-wing populists who just don't want to take it anymore, took out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on June 10, and they didn't even get a lousy T-shirt for their trouble.

Before you could say "Beltway," the third-ranking House Republican, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who supports giving legal status to undocumented immigrants and is a generally bluer version of the pro-business Cantor, was lined up to take over the No. 2 House leadership post.

Late in the game, an Idaho conservative, Representative Raul Labrador, began a halfhearted bid. But while McCarthy was speed-dialing members on their mobile phones, Labrador was going through the switchboard at individual offices. There's still a chance conservatives will be thrown a bone and allowed to fill McCarthy's whip spot with one of their own, but Labrador doesn't have a prayer.