Was It Worth It, Kevin McCarthy?

Was it worth it, Kevin? The Speakership of the House of Representatives, I mean. The long, excruciating session of the House back in January? Fifteen long, excruciating ballots, between which, you had to negotiate with people who have pinwheels in their eyes? All of it on television, as the Democrats sat back and blithely watched the auto da fe like rubberneckers at a train wreck? All of that pain and embarrassment so you could call yourself the Speaker of the House even though everybody and his Uncle Fud knew you couldn't actually be Speaker? Is it all worth it now, when there are too many chickens and not enough roosts?

View in Browser  SHOP EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIBE Kevin McCarthy Is Now Poison Among Both the Extremists and the Marginally Sane Was it worth it, Kevin? The Speakership of the House of Representatives, I mean. The long, excruciating session of the House back in January? Fifteen long, excruciating ballots, between which, you had to negotiate with people who have pinwheels in their eyes? All of it on television, as the Democrats sat back and blithely watched the auto da fe like rubberneckers at a train wreck? All of that pain and embarrassment so you could call yourself the Speaker of the House even though everybody and his Uncle Fud knew you couldn't actually be Speaker? Is it all worth it now, when there are too many chickens and not enough roosts? Read More Republicans Have Their Gym Shorts In a Twist Over John Fetterman's Gym Shorts Marjorie Taylor Greene et al can't believe Chuck Schumer is allowing him to wear an outfit of his choosing to work. Read More We Teamed Up With Line of Trade to Create Your Go-To Fall Jacket The Montana Trucker, done up in a rich brown corduroy, will be your daily driver all season long. Read More Karl Ove Knausgaard: The Man, The Myth, The Legend To talk to Karl Ove Knausgaard, I got up at 3:30 in the morning. I hadn't really slept the night before. We were staying with friends in Brooklyn; Knausgaard was in London. But it wasn't only the time difference. I had no childcare, so I needed to talk before the kids woke up. The night before, I'd slept on an air mattress in the sticky mid-August heat with my nine-year-old, who gets scared in new places and could only sleep while clutching my hand. We were meant to Zoom at 4:30 AM, but I was nervous. It was 9:30 AM in London. I boiled water for the French press. Karl Ove drinks coffee, I thought. Lots of people drink coffee, but I'd spent both last summer and this one thinking almost constantly about what Karl Ove Knausgaard thinks and likes and does. Read More The 5 Boots You Need to Know This Fall Chillier weather means an update to your footwear arsenal. Read More The 32 Best Jeans Brands Every Man Needs to Know Jeans aren't just a last resort for when your sweatpants are dirty—they're a way of life. Read More The Taste of Her Care The day my grandmother in Beijing died, I went out to dinner in New York. The meal was meant to be in her memory, but really, it spoke to the paucity of mine. My partner asked for stories as we drove from Brooklyn into Flushing, a neighborhood that hummed with the slow pedestrian choreography of its predominant Chinese diaspora. Staring out at a mass of gray-haired grannies, each indistinguishable from a distance, I found I had no stories of the woman who'd raised me. I knew neither her age nor city of birth; nor could I recount a single shared conversation. She had me until I was four, a stretch of time unimprinted on conscious memory. Empty of anecdotes and tears, I believed myself empty, too, of grief for a woman I'd seen three times in the previous thirty years. Read More Follow Us Unsubscribe | Privacy Notice | CA Notice at Collection Esquire is a publication of Hearst Magazines. ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This email was sent by Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019-3779