Kevin McCarthy and Hakeem Jeffries have almost nothing in common — except a shared ambition to run the House. Not that they will admit they think about each other at all.

“Kevin who?” Jeffries quips of the minority leader. “Who is he?” McCarthy asks, rhetorically, of the No. 5 House Democrat.

While the election that will decide their fates is nearly a year away, the cold war between the ambitious pols is in full swing. Jeffries, considered a future leader of the caucus after its octogenarian leaders step aside, rips McCarthy frequently for not doing enough to police his fringe Republicans. McCarthy has suggested that a GOP-controlled House could reprimand Jeffries for his more political tweets…

But the question that looms large on Capitol Hill is whether even brand-new leadership dynamics can fix an institution that now focuses much of its energy on laboring to pass even simple bills that enjoy broad support — when it’s not responding to personal beefs between members. The gulf of distrust that divided the two parties after Jan. 6 now infects every aspect of the House, from personal to professional, institutional minutiae to monumental legislation.