Phillip Pantuso and Joshua Solomon report for the Times Union that Rep. Marc Molinaro has become a key player in deciding who will be the next Speaker of the House. For three weeks, Republicans in Congress have been unable to determine who should be their speaker, effectively shutting down the government. The House of Representatives cannot take any action without a speaker. Molinaro said, “I’ll be very, very candid: These have been distressing, disappointing weeks.... The temperature has been turned up, emotions and harbored ill will remain, and we are surrounded by individuals and groups of members who are more interested in seeing someone or something lose than making sure the people we represent win.” Molinaro voted two times for Rep. Jim Jordan, an ultra-conservative member who worked to undermine the legal and fair results of the 2020 presidential election. Then Molinaro said he was backing the speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, but instead voted for Republican Lee Zeldin, who is not in Congress and lost New York's governor election last year. Molinaro only won his 19th Congressional District election in 2022 by about 1 ½ percent. A court will rule next month whether the District will remain drawn to favor Republicans or altered to favor Democrats. So Molinaro has little room for error in next year's election. He said, “There is animosity, there’s anger, and there’s bitterness.... I want to be clear: I’m a red-blooded Italian; I’ve got a lot of emotions. But I did not come to Congress to express my feelings to my colleagues. And so I don’t necessarily embrace this as a governing philosophy.” For now, though, dysfunction is the governing philosophy of House Republicans. Read more about this story in the Times Union.