How did we let things get this far?

Dan Crenshaw (!) wondering how Republicans could have gone so crazy as to not be able to even elect a Speaker of the House:

We knew that there was no sacrifice, no degradation that would satisfy Kevin’s leopards. He may have been able to cobble together the votes to get into the speaker’s office for a spell. And who knows, he might still? But he was never going to lead this party.

Because they were never going to put their trust in him. They would never give up one retruth, one Newsmax hit, or one scampac fundraising email for the betterment of the party. (Forget about the country.)

On Fox News on Tuesday morning, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tx.) expressed dismay over his Republican colleagues’ opposition to McCarthy, calling their actions “petty” and “childish,” and venting about how they are more concerned about notoriety than governing.

No shit, Sherlock. We’re all looking around to try to find out how that happened!

How might the new Republican conference have attracted these charlatans and con men and peacocking blowhards, I wonder?

McCarthy and Crenshaw and their ilk convinced themselves that they could throw in with the world’s biggest grifter, tell lie after lie (after lie) to their own voters, campaign for a boat of shithouse rats so crazy that they make yesterday’s crazies blush—and at the end be rewarded with their loyal support.

Absurd.

Their time was going to come eventually. For My Kevin, it appears that time is today.

It’s never been clear what Republican elites thought the endgame of endlessly indulging the Freedom Caucus was going to be, but this is always been where the train was headed, and the shithouse rats are driving.