The day Congress went back to fourth grade

Sometimes it feels like Congress is trying to parody itself.

As lawmakers stagger toward the Thanksgiving recess after some of the ugliest and most unproductive weeks in years, the place is coming completely unglued.

Despite the House passing a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open beyond this week, representatives acted out a farce Tuesday. The joke was on Americans deprived of a serious, functioning government. And don’t forget the people of Israel and Ukraine who are waiting in vain for billions of dollars in help from the US as they wage existential fights for their futures.

The 118th Congress, which took an initial step to punt funding deadlines to the winter, looked more like a fourth grade class on a day that will further erode trust in government ahead of next year’s elections. That might be fine by some of the hard-right conservatives who abhor Washington and see chaos as a worthy goal in itself. But on the eve of President Joe Biden’s critical summit with President Xi Jinping, the political tomfoolery will only bolster perceptions among US adversaries like China that America’s global power is being undermined by polarization at home.

Kidney shots, cage matches and smurfs

In one extraordinarily frivolous episode on Tuesday, Kevin McCarthy – until recently the most powerful elected Republican in the country – was accused of delivering a painful blow to Rep. Tim Burchett, one of the GOP rebels who ousted him as speaker. “It was a clean shot to the kidneys,” the Tennessean told CNN’s Manu Raju.

The former GOP leader repeatedly denied the claim, blaming a tight hallway for the collision. Then, in a flash of bravado, McCarthy added: “If I kidney punched someone, they would be on the ground.”

But it wasn’t even the most fiery showdown of the day.

Across Capitol Hill in the world’s…