Poor Kevin. The insurrectionists had an easier time getting into the Speaker’s office. This process could be over by the time you read this. Or it could be over never. In the meantime, we have no functioning Congress and Kevin McCarthy has currently failed to become Speaker eight straight times. Here’s the latest from CNN.

+ There is something schadenfreudingly funny about all this. But it’s a dark humor. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick on why these jokers are no joke. Another January, Another Attempt at Destabilizing the Government. “Watching Kevin McCarthy being ritually humiliated in round after round of voting—especially as payback for his refusal to take the events of two years ago this week as a sober warning—is schadenfreude on skates. It’s tempting to want to sit back and enjoy watching the chaos muppetry cave in on itself for the second straight day, as a political party that can no longer make claims to be serious, or to have serious leadership, is left flopping on the beaches for the delectation of us all. Except, of course, the events of Jan. 6, 2021 and Jan. 3–? of 2023 are not at all unrelated.”