@charlotteclymer you say hardest way possible, but I'm really getting the impression that McCarthy really enjoys this ending.

He came out ahead. He made his escape from an impossible situation having been speaker and made a fool of the idiots who were such a thorn in his side.

Pelosi did have it easy. She was speaker when the majority was held by a party that was suspiciously okay with toeing lines and following the crowd, which stands in start contrast to Republicans, but that doesn't really say much about the two different speakers.

Anyway, good on McCarthy. It looks like he did what he set out to do and now the House has to deal with the result of this chaos bourne of collaboration between Democrats and Republican extremists.

We get the government we vote for.