The current fight over who should be Speaker of the House has certainly inspired a lot of heated rhetoric.

“National security” is threatened. “Terrorists” are holding the country “hostage.” Tempers have flared, rhetoric hot, and Republican on Republican violence has broken out. Washington Republicans look weak, and Trump looks neutered.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw on the 20 Republicans who oppose McCarthy:

"We cannot let the terrorists win." pic.twitter.com/toZlSdikpk

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 4, 2023

Duane, Jazz, and Ed have all weighed in, and as political commentators that is their job.

Me? I don’t care that much.

I think it is (so far) a tempest in a teapot. As long as the Republicans don’t decide to cut a deal with the Democrats–and I think that would be both insane and unlikely–it doesn’t really matter that much which Republican is Speaker or when, exactly, the House is able to be sworn in and get to work.

Barring the very unlikely situation where both Biden and Harris are rendered incapable of performing their duties, we don’t much need a House of Representatives or a Speaker for anything vital yet.

The “National Security” implications of House Members not getting briefings in SCIFs is overblown. Such briefings rarely require any action on the part of the member, and Biden will do whatever he wants to anyway. He violates the Constitutional limits of his powers all the time, and there are few limits to his constitutional powers as Commander in Chief anyway. Sucks, but there it is. The briefings are almost always a courtesy, not a necessity.

Most important, the role of the House for the next two years will be as a speed bump for the Senate’s agenda and an annoyance to Biden. A deadlocked House without any members seated is as good a stumbling block for the Senate as anything could possibly be, and the investigations into the Biden Administration’s abuses of power and into the FBI won’t be significantly delayed, and Biden will stonewall as best he can. It will be pulling teeth, and a week’s delay is not much of a burden.

Regarding the embarrassment for the Republicans? It sucks, but most people think the Congress is filled with clowns anyway, and the Republican base is in a “pox on both your houses” mood. How much more acrimony could there be, barring a compromise with the Democrats?

So I am in the relatively lonely camp of “I don’t care much yet” folks. Both sides have some good points, I think. And while I think some members in the Freedom Caucus come off as kooks, don’t forget that Marjorie Taylor Greene is vilified as a kook by lots of people too, and she is one of McCarthy’s most vocal supporters. MAGA unanimity is shattered, but it was by the midterms anyway.

Sean Hannity presses Rep. Lauren Boebert for holding a double standard in battle for House Speaker.

READ: https://t.co/oWp2hTDjSJ pic.twitter.com/cuoSt4elZd

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 5, 2023

So let the MSM and the Democrats make fun of the Republicans. They would anyway, just over a different set of issues. Anybody think the Democrats and the MSM would “discover” that the Republicans were a sober group of statesmen under any other circumstances? They are chuckling right now, but the country as a whole doesn’t care.

Sure, we will need a House at some point, if for no other reason than to plague the Democrats with investigations and to change the subject from Republican disarray. But for now, who cares? The budget (a bad one) is set, and no new legislation would be a good thing in the main. There is no reform legislation that could possibly be passed with a Democrat Senate and a Biden White House.

Could the reputation of the House or the House Republicans get much lower? No. Will the acrimony be reduced by a resolution to this problem today versus a few days from now? No.

In the grand scheme of things, as long as a resolution comes in a few days, as it will, it simply doesn’t matter much. It’s like a government shutdown, of which there have been several since the Clinton Administration. Much ado about nothing important.

Life will go on. Congress will be nearly worthless. And Biden will continue his mission to destroy America.