To sum up today's proceedings in the House of Representatives, we turn to the esteemed and well-respected political thinkers Monty Python's Flying Circus:

[One man waits behind door with a large mallet... the door opens and second man enters the room.]

"I want to compl..."

[Second man is immediately hit in the head with the mallet.]

"OW!"

"Hold your head like this and then go: 'Waaah!' Try it again...."

[Hits second man on head again with mallet.]

"WHOA!!"

"Better, better, but: 'Waah! Waah!' Hold your hands here." [holds hands to head]

"No!"

[Hits second man on head again with mallet.]

"WAAAH!!!"

"That's it! That's it! Good!"

[Moves to strike again.]

"Stop hitting me!"

"What?"

"Stop hitting me."

"Stop hitting you?

"Yes."

"Oh, uh... what did you come here for?"

"I came here to complain."

"Oh, I'm sorry, that's next door -- it's Being Hit On The Head lessons in here."

"What a stupid concept!"

This is all a scene from the classic "Argument Clinic" sketch, of course. And for the life of me I can't think of a more appropriate commentary on the spectacle that Republicans are continuing to put the entire country through. Except in this new version, they just keep at it over and over again. Nobody has the common sense to call an end to what is nothing short of slapstick/physical and very dark comedy. It's like the Three Stooges trying to run a chamber of Congress, to use an American example. Or maybe Laurel and Hardy is closer, with their tagline: "Now look what you made me do!"

The tragicomedy continues, in other words, for a third straight day with no end in sight. As I write this, the tenth vote is being called. Nothing has functionally changed. There are 20 Republicans -- what even some Republicans are calling the "Taliban 20" -- who are just never going to vote for Kevin McCarthy to be speaker, period. One woman votes "present" as well, assumably to keep her options open for an upcoming Senate run. And McCarthy only gets 201 votes while Democrat Hakeem Jeffries continues to get the same 212 votes (as the Democratic Party remains unified). Helpfully, McCarthy loses his fifth and sixth vote at the very start of the alphabet, meaning the interested viewer can walk away at that point and do something else, already knowing he's going to lose this round, too.

At this point, McCarthy has given the Chaos Caucus every single thing they've demanded. And he hasn't picked up a single vote by caving to their demands. So this is either going to continue until McCarthy has some sort of "come to Jesus moment" and decides to withdraw his candidacy, or possibly until Hell freezes over.

Perhaps that is being too negative, but then again perhaps not. What the Chaos Caucus wants is... nothing. Lots and lots of nothing. They want the House to accomplish nothing at all. No bills passing other than ones that they personally approve of -- which means no bills that the Democratic Senate is even going to consider. They want no budget bills to pass, period. They want to gut Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid and they're willing to torpedo the entire American economy to do so. They are, in a word, nihilists. They stand -- strongly! -- for nothing. Lots and lots and lots of nothing.

You have to wonder, given those facts, who in their right mind would even accept the job anymore. If McCarthy bows out, who else is going to volunteer for what is guaranteed to be an absolutely frustrating and downright-impossible job? Any Republican has to know that the only way anything is going to happen in the 118th Congress is to put together a coalition with enough Democrats to overcome the Chaos Caucus, who will refuse to accept anything. Which is precisely what the Chaos Caucus is so upset about in the first place -- the fact that a budget just got passed for most of the rest of this year, with bipartisan support. This enrages them, but it will still be the only way to get anything done, no matter how intense their rage is. All of this is patently obvious. So who would put their own neck on that chopping block? The last two Republican speakers left Congress in disgust over their own members, after all. The next one seems almost predestined to take the same route, sooner or later. It seems like political suicide is baked in to the job of any Republican speaker these days. Only a committed masochist would even be interested, to put it another way.

This could all be a forgotten sideshow, a footnote in the history books, if they find some sort of way out of the morass they themselves have created. But then again it could wind up being more significant. This could be the end of the Republican Party, as it irreconcilably splits into two factions. At this point, anything seems possible. Or we could wind up with some sort of power-sharing arrangement, with possibly some Democrats chairing a few key committees. This sort of parliamentary alliance (with a moderate, sane, and reasonable Republican as speaker) could work and could serve to defuse the radical extremists in the Republican Party. But I have no idea what the chances for any of these scenarios coming true even is, at this point.

What seems much more possible is a whole lotta nothin' going on. Maybe the key bills (budget, debt ceiling hike) will somehow manage to pass the lower chamber. But little else will be accomplished other than Republicans venting their collective spleens in pointless political investigations into all their myriad conspiracy theories.

The Chaos Caucus truly does stand for nothing. This is why it has been impossible for McCarthy to satisfy them ideologically, because even they have no real idea what they want. This could be a preamble to two long years of nothing (much) getting done. No matter what hapless Republican is given the titular job of "leading," the lunatics will truly be in charge of the asylum. Which means we can all look forward to a whole lot of nothing. Because what it all seems to be coming down to is: nihilists gotta nihil.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant