The solution is obvious. McConnell is *already* abusing the filibuster to block the constitution of the new majority. Nuking the filibuster is the appropriate response. At the very least the threat is the only thing that might make McConnell back down. politico.com/news/2021/01/2…
The alternative—cave to McConnell on this basic question of which party won the majority, and ratify his plan to set a 60-vote threshold for everything of consequence—would be a profound, irrevocable betrayal right off the bat.
This is an important thing for reporters to portray accurately, too. McConnell is *already* abusing the filibuster to nullify the Senate election results.
If Dems cave to this abuse it’ll be just appalling. But if McConnell doesn’t budge, he leaves them no choice but to go nuclear as a first order of business. The fact that he, again, created an untenable situation is the story.
There’s a big role here for liberal writers: to clarify just how vulgar McConnell’s latest hostage threat is (so it’s covered accurately) and how cripplingly destructive it’d be for Dems to cave (so they don’t). @ThePlumLineGS@jonathanchait@michelleinbklyn@joshtpm@ezraklein
In short, McConnell is telling Dems they can’t seat their newly elected members on committees, take gavels, etc unless they preemptively bless his right to filibuster everything. How is he able to do that? By abusing the filibuster rules! Rules Dems can change with 50 votes.
Let's be even clearer than this. McConnell is threatening to nullify Senate election results unless Dems concede him veto power over most of Biden's agenda. 'Filibustering the organizing resolution' is technical language to describe the weapon he's using.
But it's true, Democrats can neutralize McConnell's threat to their legitimate control over the Senate by doing the very thing he's trying to strongarm them into not doing: abolish the filibuster.
Excellent, people are starting to notice. McConnell is indeed nullifying the senate election through abuse of the filibuster rules and Dems are (inexplicably but hopefully only temporarily) allowing it, because some of them would rather be humiliated and robbed than use power.
New: I don’t know how things will shake out early next year, but I think it was a mistake for Dems to agree to decouple certain domestic appropriations from defense (sorry, the “ladder approach”) as ransom to the GOP to avoid a Thanksgiving shutdown. offmessage.net/p/shoots-and-l…
This all happened very fast, and because the Freedom Caucus is mad and Republicans are cosplaying Street Fighter, most of the coverage has taken it as a given that Mike Johnson caved. I’m not so sure. offmessage.net/p/shoots-and-l…
Democrats have conceded “take it or leave it” leverage that comes with omnibus bills and clean CRs, allowing Republicans in principle to demagogue their way to full defense appropriations while shutting down or gutting other departments. offmessage.net/p/shoots-and-l…
SOME PROFESSIONAL NEWS: Thursday was my last day at Crooked Media, today I launch a new, independent venture. It’s called Off Message and I hope you’ll join me by subscribing. offmessage.net/p/welcome-to-o…
If you’ve followed my work in recent years, you know I’ve been consistently concerned that the liberal and Democratic Party tendency to hyper-caution is a bad fit for a zero-sum fight against authoritarianism. offmessage.net
At the same time, I’ve been heartened by the many exceptions. Most recently, the 1/6 Committee, the Fetterman campaign, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, the clear signal from 2022 voters that they will prioritize democracy and basic rights over any policy issue or picayune grievance.
Our media in response to a basically good jobs report, my god…
Ok, I went and looked. In March, 2019, BLS reported that the economy added 196,000 jobs. Here’s how the same media interpreted that finding for news consumers.
In August of the same year, the economy added 164,000, before revisions. Here’s the story the public heard about it.
I think another way to look at the dynamic Greg describes here is that McCarthy, other GOP leaders, Fox, et al have trapped themselves. They could get together, smoke-filled room style, and solve their collective-action problem, but refuse to. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
The Times, similarly, sees a story about Trump’s strength, but I see a mirror image story of GOP weakness.
The Times could’ve inverted the emphasis: DeSantis CRUSHES Trump among GOP voters who say Trump committed serious crimes. My takeaway isn’t really about how well or poorly DeSantis is doing vs Trump, it’s that there are so few GOP voters who know or admit Trump committed crimes.
Newsletter! (Yesterday’s.) I looked at the bafflement among It’s The Economy, Stupid liberals over why Joe Biden remains unpopular, despite a very strong economy. https://t.co/rCFqy2WxeKmailchi.mp/crooked.com/bi…
One possible explanation is, I think, pretty obvious… https://t.co/9XgiG6qbFWeepurl.com/gQH7lz
The best alternate explanation, consistent with the theory that a good economy helps incumbents like clockwork, is that there’s a lag between the economy becoming good and the public catching up. I hope it’s correct, but it’s a gamble and there are reasons to imagine it’s wrong.