McCarthy goes 0-8, and "proper" Republicans go wild

so what’s the problem?

(Running Update)

0-9

0-10,

0-11

0-12

0-13

Ted Cruz calls them traitors, the so-called conservative rag Bulwark quotes Ted Liu (!) to claim that the country is in peril. Bullshit.

From The Bulwark:

“We can’t even do basic things,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Cal.) told The Bulwark. “We can’t conduct any oversight. You can’t have an entire branch of government simply not function. And we don’t have a House right now because no one’s even sworn in.”

“And the chaos on the Republican side is having real consequences for the country and it’s going to get very serious very fast,” he added. “Imagine if there’s some unexpected crisis either domestically or somewhere in the world and you needed Congress to act. We couldn’t right now because we don’t have a speaker.”

Lieu also painted a picture of a future speakership fight with even more disturbing consequences—if a dispute like this were to occur during a year in which Congress is charged with certifying a presidential election.

Over at Hot Air, David Strom takes what I consider a balanced view of the kerfuffle, highlights some of the good points the rebels are making and somme of their most ridiculous demands, and concludes that the impass will eventually be resolved, probably sooner than later, and the Republic will survive until it is. I’m in no rush; n fact, maybe everybody should go home for a couple of years and reconvene in 2024, or ‘25.

UPDATE: Powerline’s Steven Hayward points out that, because they can’t be sworn in before a speaker is elected, Congressmen can’t be paid. While many of our representatives are already millionaires, the newer ones just hope to be — that’s why they sought office in the first place —so we’ll probably see someone cave before along.

Or perhaps the stalemate is already over: