“The choice,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, “is Kevin McCarthy or chaos.”

And he’s right. Unless McCarthy blinks. As it stands, though, McCarthy has the backing of around 85% of the Republican caucus, and the only plausible alternative — House Freedom Caucus member and rock-ribbed conservative Jim Jordan — has made it clear that a) he doesn’t want the job of House speaker, and b) that he’s all in behind McCarthy for speaker. Even Freedom Caucus firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene supports McCarthy.

So it’s going to be Kevin McCarthy. The only question is: When?

“When” might be a while, especially given that not even Donald Trump appears able to influence the holdouts. His social media post yesterday may not have brought the two sides together, but it wasn’t for lack of trying, or for lack of UPPER-CASE urgency:

Some really good conversations took place last night, and it’s now time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY, & WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME TO A VERY BROKEN CALIFORNIA, THE ONLY SPEAKER IN U.S. HISTORY TO HAVE LOST THE “HOUSE” TWICE! REPUBLICANS, DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT. IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE, YOU DESERVE IT. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a GREAT JOB — JUST WATCH!

Trump’s endorsement couldn’t even sway one of his staunchest supporters. “Sad!” said Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz in a statement. “This changes neither my view of McCarthy, nor Trump, nor my vote.”

After six votes, McCarthy has 201 of the 218 votes needed for the speakership.

“I think the Republican Party right now is in the greatest danger of meltdown that it’s been since 1964,” says Gingrich. “I think that’s true in the Senate. It’s true in the presidential race. … And these five guys decided to go out as kamikazes and see if they can’t sink the whole Republican Party. And that’s what they’re doing. This is not about Kevin McCarthy. This is about the right of any five members to basically throw away the entire rest of the conference and tell the rest of the conference it doesn’t matter.”

Here again, Newt is right: The five, or even the 15%, shouldn’t be able to dictate terms to the 85%. But Newt is also wrong if he thinks these holdouts shouldn’t have a voice; that they should sit down and shut up on his schedule.

Speaking of shutting up, Congressman and SEAL veteran Dan Crenshaw put it much more colorfully: “I’m tired of your stupid platitudes that some consultant told you to say on the campaign trail, alright. Behind closed doors tell us what you actually want, or shut the f*** up.”

The bottom line is that a handful of Freedom Caucus conservatives don’t trust Kevin McCarthy, and that doesn’t necessarily make them “kamikazes” or platitudinous blowhards. It just means that means McCarthy still has work to do.

Meanwhile, across the aisle, Democrats did what Democrats do best: behave like lemmings and vote in lockstep. New York Congressman and ardent election denier Hakeem Jeffries was the beneficiary, garnering every single Democrat vote for speaker while his colleagues mocked the Republicans.

Mock away, we say. The Democrats only wish they could have a spirited leadership debate. Only wish they could tolerate true diversity of thought within their caucus. Only wish they could experience the messiness of freedom rather than the neatness of unfailing obedience. What we have here is a party eager to distract the American people from its rotten policies and its pathetic standard-bearer.

As for Joe Biden, he couldn’t resist weighing in either. Asked about the Republicans’ speakership woes outside the White House, he said: “That’s not my problem. I just think it’s a little embarrassing it’s taking so long and the way they’re dealing with one another.”

Got that? Our compulsively lying laughingstock of a president is lecturing Republicans on what’s “embarrassing.”

Ol’ Scranton Joe can rest easy, though. Republicans will get this figured out. And they’ll do it without losing a single vote from a disgruntled constituent, and they’ll do it without Kevin McCarthy having to form a coalition speakership with the Democrats. They’ll do it the old-fashioned way: by horse trading and hearing each other out and realizing that the sooner they take care of this business, the sooner they can start wielding those gavels and acting as a vigorous check on Joe Biden’s ruinous presidency.

POSTSCRIPT: Yesterday, House Republicans made a bit of history by nominating a black man, Florida’s Byron Donalds, for speaker, but this seems to us little more than symbolic. Donalds has been in Congress for just a single term, and while his future in the party looks bright, it probably doesn’t begin with the House speakership of the 118th Congress.