And CNN wonders why it's losing viewers.

Internal sources apparently see 16 of the 19 as dug in.

Someone will have to blink eventually, but a shitshow is a shitshow... and the eventual Speaker, whoever it is, is going to be weak and compromised by the worst extremists. (And Kevin is already both those things.)

This makes absolutely no effing sense. They want him because he doesn't want it? (And of course he does - he just knows he can't *get* it.)

What's their end game? Even if their numbers do grow, they're 199 short of winning, and they're not going to gain 199 votes for Gym.

(Also, these loons are not "conservatives.")

Bacon is the only R I have seen so far who's suggested working with Ds to get a "moderate" R as Speaker.

Incidentally, as all 19 R defects - er, defectors - vote for Gym Jordan, Gym himself is backing McCarthy.

Gym will now be under massive pressure to deliver "his" votes for McCarthy. But most of them voted for other nutjobs in the 1st round.

2nd round same as the first - 19 R votes against McCarthy. The only difference is that all 19 voted for Gym Jordan, fascist extraordinaire.

Where do they go from here?

God knows.

19 R votes for Gym Jordan so far in the 2nd round - an actual fascist.

Meanwhile the majority claim they won't budge from McCarthy (one assumes because they think other options are worse, not because of loyalty to him - I don't think anyone is loyal to him but him).

The defecting (and defective) Rs have no all consolidated behind Gym Jordan, demanding that fascist conspiracy theorist for Speaker.

So far 18 have voted for him.

Bear with me here, but I think Ali Alexander is not quite right in the head.

Nope, he already lost the 2nd ballot.

Question now is whether the numbers change at all in this round, either for him or against him.

That doesn't mean he definitely doesn't, of course. There could be a backroom deal before the 2nd ballot for all we know... though if that happens McCarthy would lose even more power to the crazies in any "deal" he'd make.

But his path is, it appears, uphill for the moment.

This is indeed the big point right now. McCarthy has room to gain among these 19. But it's not clear he has room to gain the 15 he needs.

Exactly so.

What makes him think he "earned" anything?

Oh.

NINETEEN Rs voted against "Steve" McCarthy.

So much for keeping it under 4.

18 R votes against McCarthy, now. And the voting isn't finished yet.

Yesterday McCarthy's allies were trying to project confidence that it could be kept below 4.

This is the first time the House has failed to elect a Speaker on the first ballot since 1923... and only the 2nd time since the Civil War.

The vote is still in progress, but McCarthy has already lost more R votes than he can afford to. He's lost the first ballot.

First time a Speaker has failed to win on the first ballot since, as I recall, 1923.

This is what makes the MAGA rants against McCarthy particularly ironic - he's been a key Trump enabler at every turn.