It's Tuesday, October 17, 2023.

I'm Albert Moeller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from

a Christian world view.

Yesterday we discussed the fact that in just a matter of days, it's as if the world

has been reshaped.

And the same thing is true when we think about some of the elements related to politics.

Now, we're going to be tracking events in the Middle East, but we're going to wait

until there's a little more clarity on exactly what's going on there.

But right now, we do know with clarity that a decision point has been reached today.

The United States House of Representatives is scheduled after a weekend recess to come

back and vote on a nominee for the Office of Speaker, the role without which the House

cannot operate.

Of course, we had Kevin McCarthy, California Republican toppled from that post just a matter

of days ago.

But soon after that happened, you had the Hamas attack upon Israel, all kinds of events,

two massive carrier strike groups moving into the Eastern Mediterranean, we clearly need

a functioning national government.

And that means that the House with a very thin Republican majority must elect a speaker.

This is a situation that is now escalated beyond anything that was on the imagination

of those who took the action to remove Kevin McCarthy from that post.

But the absence of a plan B after plan A has become glaringly obvious.

And at this point is leaning into irresponsibility.

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