House Republicans — or at least a small, admirable faction of their conference — have provided some hope for the future of the party even as they struggle to elect a new speaker of the House.

While Kevin McCarthy’s ouster and the chaos that has paralyzed the lower chamber of Congress ever since have been unmitigated embarrassments for the GOP, the holdouts responsible for preventing Rep. Jim Jordan from securing the speaker’s gavel deserve the nation’s gratitude.

On Friday, Jordan lost his status as speaker-designate after his candidacy failed on the House floor for the third time in four days; a secret ballot betrayed widespread dissatisfaction with his candidacy.

Jordan has made a national name for himself as a show horse, going out on thin limbs for former President Donald Trump and interrogating witnesses during hearings.

But what Jordan boasts in sizzle, he lacks in substance.

The Ohio congressman is not the “effective legislator” McCarthy risibly characterized him as ahead of the House’s third rejection of him Friday.

In fact, Jordan has failed to accomplish much of anything during his close-to-two decades in Congress.

Jordan is, and long has been, one of the least effective representatives in America, as Vanderbilt University’s Center for Effective Lawmaking notes.

The firebrand has no detectable record of shepherding legislation through the House; that’s no insignificant deficiency for a speaker candidate.

Jordan, moreover, would have been a moral and electoral liability as the face of the GOP in Congress.

Wrestlers Jordan coached at Ohio State allege he was aware of and did nothing about their sexual abuse by their team physician.

He also played a key role in Trump’s efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election, working feverishly toward that end up to and through the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

How exactly would members have benefited from abridging their conscience to empower Jordan?

If you’re struggling to find an answer, that’s a sign of brain activity, not malfunction.

Republicans would have been saddled with an erratic, self-serving fire-breather and rightly punished at the ballot box for it.

There’s still another important reason defeating Jordan’s candidacy was so important.

Jordan supported McCarthy as he faced down the successful mutiny attempt this month, but the eight Republicans who teamed up with the Democrats to eject McCarthy — excepting Rep. Ken Buck — are all Jordan allies.

Alongside other wannabe shock jocks who happened into the legislature, some of those rebels then persuaded Majority Leader Steve Scalise to drop out of the race, even though he had more support within the conference than Jordan, by threatening to oppose him on the floor.

These arsonists would have been delighted to see Jordan become the chief beneficiary of their reckless brinkmanship as he would have been inclined to stave off any deserved punishment of them and perhaps dole out rewards for their efforts.

Even stipulating they would not have received any individual goodies, Jordan’s rise would have been a political boon to them.

Jordan’s unconservative radicalism aside, the rebels could have claimed victory over the establishment.

Their pointless stunt would have been cast as a brilliant, brave gambit that produced a “fighter” worthy of the Republican electorate.

That story would have had enough holes in it to sink the Titanic, but it nevertheless would have been the one told by them and their carefree fans in the media.

Making Jim Jordan the 56th speaker of the House would have been akin to rewarding a tantruming child to the detriment of his more well-behaved siblings.

Fortunately, it seems the sane wing of the GOP has at last grown a spine.

Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite.