re: So is McCarthy going to be SOTH a formality or does he have a fight?

It’s a mess right now but I still think folks fall in line. Either to his credit, or for his own survival, McCarthy allowed for rules debate and has agreed to almost every demand from the freedom caucus. He finally just relented on the vacate the chair rule. Now any 5 members from the majority party can call for a new speaker at practically any time.

There are some folks who are just never McCarthy’ers but at least they have some cover with the rules change.