(CNN) In the space of 30 minutes, behind closed doors and by a voice vote, Republicans removed Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from her role as the third-ranking GOP leader.
If the "how" is any indicator of the "why" and the "what now," the maneuvering to get Cheney out on Wednesday bodes very poorly for House Republicans.
Consider what they could have done:
1. Hold the vote in public.
2. Hold the vote in private but allow time for those who wanted to speak on Cheney's behalf to do so.
3. Hold the vote in private but allow a roll call vote so that people not in the room could have some sense of what the level of support for Cheney was.
They didn't do any of that.
In fact, according to The New York Times' Jonathan Martin, "a handful of members missed it [the Cheney vote] because they were just arriving to the meeting when it broke up."
The entire feel of the vote was one of shame or embarrassment. An active effort to not draw any more attention to what was happening -- and to quickly start talking about the future. (Worth noting: former President Donald Trump continues to talk about the past -- the 2020 election, in particular, every single day.)
"We, as a conference, must remain focused on stopping Speaker Pelosi and President Biden's socialist agenda," wrote House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (Louisiana) in a memo sent to members shortly after the Cheney vote.
Look, no party likes to air their dirty laundry in public. But in a matter this serious -- the first removal of a Republican leader from her post in the modern history of the House -- you would think that the party would, at a minimum, allow dissenters to the ouster of Cheney to have their voices heard and their votes recorded.
Even before the vote, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger had sussed out what Republican leaders were trying to do -- and how a-historical it is/was.
"Kevin McCarthy (an employee of Donald Trump) may win tomorrow, but history won't be kind," Kinzinger tweeted. "Never has our party gone after it's own leadership like this, but Kevin and Steve Scalise made history, because Trump has thin skin. I'd be embarrassed if I was them."
It's worth remembering too that the last time House Republicans held a vote to remove Cheney -- in early February -- they not only held a roll call vote but also released the results. (Cheney won that won 145-61.)
Why then hold a voice vote only this time around? My educated guess is that McCarthy and Scalise wanted to show as much of a united party as possible -- and a voice vote was their best possible route to achieve that goal. There's no numbers involved and no recorded votes -- meaning that reporters can't follow up with each individual member and ask how they voted. Because there was no vote.
With stakes this high, the attempt to paper over who, exactly, wanted Cheney gone (and who wanted her to stay) is an act of political cowardice. That they didn't even feel as though they owed Cheney a formal vote -- so she could see who, exactly, wanted her gone -- speaks to just how much they think of her. Answer? Not much.