>> joining me now to talk about this fascinating development, cnn political commentators peter beinart and ben ferguson. thanks, guys for being with me on this. i want to first get your reaction. here you have kevin mccarthy. he had enough votes to get this job. and then he says no, i don't want it. what is your reaction? let's start with you, peter. >> it's really remarkable. i mean, the old political commentator will rogers said i don't belong to an organized political party, i'm a democrat. which historically it was the democrats that were considered the more anarchic of the parties. but if you look at what is happening among the republicans of the house, there is really a sense of anarchy there is no respect for hierarchy there is no willingness to compromise in order to make the party function. and as a result, we have a remarkable situation in which we have no idea who the speaker is going to be. and not much prospect of having a speaker who is going to be strong enough to actually do things that are in the republican party's own