Not that I don't have a low opinion of Boehner, who leaves behind a record as demonstrably one of the worst Speakers the House has ever had.

But my schadenfreude is tempered by the knowledge that the next Speaker can only be more extreme, and the only question is how much more extreme. Five years ago, when Boehner was elected, the Tea Partiers were new in Congress and didn't have nearly the power they have now. This election, any new Speaker will have to promise red meat, and lots of it, to the Tea Party Caucus.

I wouldn't have thought it possible for the US government to become even more dysfunctional than it is now, but that's what Boehner's resignation guarantees. Maybe not in the short run, according to one theory that resigning at least empowers Boehner to stand up to the extremists one last time and prevent their threatened shutdown over Planned Parenthood. But in the long run, it transfer power even farther to the right.

And how far to the right they can go isn't limited by the already-far-right membership of the House.

Fun fact: Here's the Constitution's entire description of the job of Speaker:

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers....

Article I, Section 2, Clause 5

Can you spot what's missing? No? Yeah, it can be hard to spot what isn't there: Any stipulation that the Speaker of the House has to be a member of the House. He or she speaks for the House, but doesn't necessarily have to cast a vote in the House.

I mention this because of our second Fun Fact of the Day: For a couple of years now, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Alberta) has had the title "Speaker of the House" appended to his name in honor of his attempts to lead the House farther to the right by taking a detour around their official Speaker.

Put our two Fun Facts of the Day together and they add up to this: It's not entirely inconceivable that Senator Ted Cruz could be elected Speaker of the US House of Representative.

Isn't reality a hoot?