There is still no Speaker of the House of Representatives after Representative Kevin McCarthy lost his 11th bid for the job. You’d have to go back befor The Civil War to find similar House drama. Voting will start back up today.
All of this infighting has been a boon for C-SPAN with people tuning in to Congress like they’d tune into WrestleMania. If only they’d start wrestling to settle this!
Actually, wrestling is not off the table. As New York Magazine puts it, “The United States House of Representatives is currently not governed by anybody or by any set of rules. No one has been sworn in because there is no Speaker, and therefore everyone on the floor is still a member-elect. There is technically still no Congress at all and therefore no rules for it to obey. In the interim, members can do what they want. They can commit minor acts of rebellion like wearing hats on the floor or even accusing their colleagues of drinking inside the legislative chamber, like Florida Republican representative Kat Cammack did when giving yet another nominating speech for McCarthy on Wednesday.”
So schoolyard shenanigans it is in the U.S. Congress!
