Republicans are talking about a bipartisan deal to make the speaker pro tempore, Representative Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.), into a temporary acting speaker with limited powers. It would be a mistake. Not because it would elevate McHenry: If a majority of the House wants him as speaker, I’m all for their voting that way. I prefer him to Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) in the position for reasons mentioned here.

But there’s no need to make a bipartisan deal. Just leave him as speaker pro tempore. If he does something that a majority of the House considers an abuse, that majority can then vote to curtail his power. There is no need (1) to force pro-McHenry congressmen to build a majority as opposed to merely prevent an anti-McHenry majority from forming, (2) to create some new institution, the limited and temporary speakership, (3) to make Republicans swallow having to cut Democrats in, or (4) to put McHenry at immediate odds with the Republicans who don’t like (2) or (3).

Yes to McHenry, no to a deal.