hi there, everyone, here we go again. it s 4:00 in new york. at this hour, the house of representatives is completely and totally paralyzed. it is unable and incapable of swearing in members, forming committees, setting rules for itself, passing legislation even in the case of an emergency, couldn t do any of those things. it s a state of chaos and paralysis that is unprecedent ed in modern american history and it is all because the new republican house majority cannot agree on who should lead it in the 118th congress. house gop leader kevin mccarthy has moved into the speaker s office already, appears to be living by the motto, if at first you don t succeed try, try, try, try, try, try again. he has now lost five votes for the speakership, a sixth vote is underway. it s already clear from the math that mccarthy doesn t have the votes to become speaker of the house of representatives this time either. democrats for their part quietly made history yesterday by choosing the fir
events sort of come in because of his reverence for the institution. kevin mccarthy has no reverence for the institution, if he did he would have been interested in investigating the insurrection that literally threatened the physical and actual institution of the united states congress, the seat of government. he s not an institutionalist, not a moderate, not a normal republican by any standard. and it s been a very fast snap of history. i mean republican house members have always sort of been the most politically raunchy, if you will. they ve always dabbled in the most extreme ideologies, but steve king was too radical. i mean he was purged by the house republican caucus. this is new, and this is an innovation of kevin mccarthy to tolerate violence, to tolerate threats to other members of the body, tolerate anti-democratic decertification of the same ballots that your own elections are certified and voted on. this is new. he deserves everything that he