15 Rounds

He was bruised and battered, 15 grueling rounds having left him bloodied and exhausted. At various moments his defeat seeming but an inevitability.

His opponent had come at him in wave after wave, his own counterattack diminishing with each succeeding blow he absorbed. Where once there was bravado, in the end there was merely a shell, still trying to dance, but now barely able to put one foot in front of the other.

What will be remembered from this battle is not his strength but his weaknesses, not what he gained but what he lost, not the crown on his head but the quicksand beneath his feet.

When the scorecard of the judges was tallied his win was by the narrowest of margins, the smell of defeat permeating even as he raised his hand and banged his gavel.

Kevin McCarthy is now Speaker of the House. But he is not speaker, but spoken to, not the voice of his party but muted by the noise of those who showed not an ounce of respect for his punch.

Kevin McCarthy may have won the fight but he lost the war. 15 rounds of slow torture revealing he was not lion but lamb. 15 rounds in which the world watched him grow ever smaller, until almost nothing remained. Toothless, as he now attempts to rule his kingdom.