I wrote about the chaos in the House for Politico today:
The substantive stakes in the battle over Kevin McCarthy’s speakership bid, which has produced a deadlock not seen on the House floor in a hundred years, are not large. There are limits to what any Republican leader can accomplish with a five-vote majority while Democrats control the Senate and the presidency.
Henry Clay could be speaker of the House, bring great gravitas to the position — and still only muster some oversight investigations and a big spending fight or two.
Marjorie Taylor Greene could be speaker of the House (at this rate, no one should count her out), use the position as a platform for juvenile trolling — and still muster some oversight investigations and a big spending fight or two.
So this episode won’t alter the trajectory of Washington politics or the priorities of the GOP. It is mainly important as another indication that the GOP lacks any coherent center of authority, and is a party that, to some significant extent, loathes itself.