Forget the soul-selling, the endless voting, and the near-brawl on the floor of the House. Even the happy moments of Kevin McCarthy’s path to the Speakership were ominous. “Perhaps the most revealing image of the ugly night came shortly after the final ballot had been completed. As McCarthy sat waiting for the official tally, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right election denier and conspiracy theorist who represents Georgia’s Fourteenth District, crouched down beside him to take a cheek-to-cheek picture with the soon-to-be Speaker.” The New Yorker: Kevin McCarthy’s Hollow Victory Will Have Economic and Political Consequences.

+ “To make sense of the nonsensical, Washington’s chattering class — not to mention the thousands of Americans who turned to C-SPAN to follow the tragedy on the Hill — found themselves falling back on William Shakespeare’s timeless works.” Politico: The Shakespearean Tragedy of Kevin McCarthy, Prince of Washington. In this case, when someone wonders, To be or not to be, they’re probably asking about America.