House GOP rebels recall a distant era when dissidents rose up against 'Czar Cannon'

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/23/ [login to see] /motion-to-vacate-matt-gaetz-cannon-1910
For those following the continuing crisis on Capitol Hill that has the House Republican majority threatening to force a government shutdown, the term "the motion to vacate the chair" is no doubt familiar.

Vacating a chair may sound like the simple act of standing up. But in the specialized language of congressional procedure, it means standing up to the presiding officer — implicitly challenging that officer's right to preside by threatening to replace the officer altogether.

The phrase, and the procedure, had been bandied about earlier this year in the January melee that finally elevated Speaker Kevin McCarthy to his present job. Rebels from the House Freedom Caucus did not want to allow the California Republican, their titular leader for the last four years, to grasp "the big gavel" unless promised a chance to force his removal.