The move, which was led by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Va.) and championed by fellow Republicans Sam Graves (Mo.), Peter Roskam (Ill.) and Blake Farenthold (Tex.) — all three of whom had, to their minds, been victimized by the OCE — sparked an immediate backlash. Democrats slammed Republicans for holding a closed-door, Sunday night vote that eliminated an office aimed at keeping lawmakers in line. Advocates for transparency and good government piled on.

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The Republican leadership made clear that it had warned Goodlatte and the rest about the perils of moving against the OCE — and had voted against the measure behind closed doors. Which was all well and good. But a) they didn't stop it from seeing the light of day and b) this meant the idea that establishment leaders are running things in the House was immediately undermined.

As the broader rules package — which governed how the House will be run for the next two years and included the proposed OCE gutting — was approaching a floor vote, House Republicans convened a last-minute meeting in which they — surprise, surprise! — took the OCE amendment out of the legislation.

In the wake of that move, Republican leaders offered a bit of admirable spin that they had saved the party from a total meltdown on the first day of Congress. Sort of. But why was the measure ever voted for — against the wishes of that same leadership? And why, if there was such bipartisan support for eliminating the OCE, wasn't it put to a full House vote?

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The whole OCE imbroglio served as a reminder of two things about Washington — one old and one new.

The old one is that single-party power is a dangerous thing for the party that holds that power.

The new one is that Republican leaders simply don't have control over their own rank and file.

For being reminded that election success doesn't fix all of your problems (and can make some of them worse), House Republicans had the Worst Week in Washington. Congrats, or something.