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Welcome to the Commentary Magazine Daily podcast today is Wednesday, October 4th, 2023.

I am John Pajoritz, the editor of Commentary Magazine with me as always, executive editor,

A Greenwald Hyab, Washington Commentary columnist, Matthew Contnetti. Hi, Matthew. Hi,

Matthew. Hi, John. Media Commentary columnist, Christine Rosen. Hi, Christine. Hi, John.

And joining us today to make sense out of one of the most baffling 24 hours, one of the most

baffling 24 hours, some of the most baffling hours in recent American political history is our

good friend, the editor in chief of Jewish insider, and the author of the Axios Sunday,

Sunday sneak, Sunday sneak newsletter, Josh Krasher. Josh, you've been here before. Thank you

for coming again. I'm going to go right into it with you. What the hell happened? Okay, you have

30 seconds. Well, where do we start, guys? Look, it's great to be back on such a crazy day on

on Capitol Hill. I mean, look, Kevin McCarthy is sort of a track. I think something of a tragic

figure in Washington and that he always wanted to be speaker from the day that he was in leadership

and was pictured on a book with Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan as some of the rising Republican stars

back in 2010. Young guns, the young guns. He lost his chance to be speaker several years later,

when he flubbed an interview talking about Benghazi and kind of self-imulated on national television

and gave Paul Ryan the chance to become a speaker. But then he finally has the chance to be speaker.

It takes 15 rounds. He has a narrowest of majorities and he lasts nine months and is the only

speaker in American history to be de-fantastrated by his own party. So I think there's a lot about

McCarthy, but there's also a lot about this political moment, John, that anyone in that position

is going to have a thankless job. Whoever ends up succeeding, Kevin McCarthy may actually be

a lot less successful than he was in his nine-month tenure. And you know, you have these factions

...