The House speaker crisis is part of the GOP's identity crisis

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The immediate, unanswered question facing the US government is which Republican lawmaker can untie this knot, unite their party and reopen the House of Representatives.

The larger issue that may be even more difficult for Republicans to solve is figuring out what they even stand for at this point. Is it the party of limited government or the party that can't figure out how to govern?

Tuesday marks three full weeks without a House speaker and 24 days until the government runs out of money, to say nothing of aid packages many lawmakers want for Israel and Ukraine.

No legislation can move until lawmakers select a speaker, and they're way beyond a Goldilocks search for just the right candidate.

► A small minority was able to fire Rep. Kevin McCarthy (for being too willing to rely on Democrats to avoid a government shutdown).

► Rep. Steve Scalise ended his campaign early (he was too unwilling to make concessions to secure votes among holdouts).