^ pretty much.
they're required to keep voting until the house has a speaker. further, the house can't do anything - agree rules, swear in newly-elected reps, let alone vote on a law - until the speaker is elected.
the election is basically being held ransom by a handful of republicans including boebert and gaetz. they'll be horse-trading behind the scenes but publicly many of them are making it clear they will not vote for mccarthy.
they can't even get this done and we're supposed to be comfortable with the idea of their running the country?
alasdair