Welcome back to The Best & The Brightest, focused on the inside conversation within the White House and the Pentagon, on K Street, under the Dome, and among the media companies covering it all. Tonight, news and notes on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s next moves.

But first…

• McCarthy’s Budget Confusion: The week after Joe Biden introduced his $6.8 trillion 2024 budget, Republican members tell me they are starting to get nervous that Speaker Kevin McCarthy has yet to introduce his own and are now wondering how to respond. The House Freedom Caucus was ready to go public with their own rebuttal, of course, but more media-adroit members are still trying to figure out what their messaging should be and are waiting for directives from leadership. “What’s the plan? I wouldn’t be able to answer it,” said one G.O.P. member. This may be tenable for a few more days, but without a rebuttal, Democrats (as well as Republicans further to the right) are going to cement control...

In her earliest years on Capitol Hill, A.O.C. has contained multitudes. She was a #resistance hero, an inspiration, a right-wing target and trigger, and a veritable power center all her own. And yet, amid the chaos of the Trump years, she also posed a material challenge to leadership, a frustration to Democrats who wanted to stay united...