Shutdown watch: An inexperienced zealot is in charge of the House. What could go wrong?

The government shuts down Nov. 17 at midnight unless Congress acts in the next 11 days to pass a short-term funding bill, or a continuing resolution. As of Monday, it looks like the Republican House has no intention of working on that this week: There is no CR on the schedule.

If Punchbowl News is to be believed, Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t brought his leadership team together to hash out options with the conference, and the “GOP whip operation is not currently in action at all.” If Johnson is to be believed, working on a CR is his focus. "We worked through the weekend on a stopgap measure," Johnson said on Fox News Sunday.