“The acting chief of the Capitol Police apologized to Congress on Tuesday for the agency’s massive security failures on Jan. 6, acknowledging during a closed-door briefing that the department knew there was a ‘strong potential for violence’ …
“but failed to take adequate steps to prevent what she described as a ‘terrorist attack.’
“Yogananda D. Pittman, the acting chief of police, also confirmed that the Capitol Police Board, an obscure panel made up of three voting members, had initially declined a request two days earlier for National Guard troops …
“and then delayed for more than an hour as the violence unfolded on Jan. 6 before finally agreeing to a plea from the Capitol Police for National Guard troops, according to prepared testimony obtained by The New York Times.
“In an extraordinary admission, Chief Pittman, who was not the acting chief at the time of the siege, told members of the House Appropriations Committee, which oversees funding for the agency, …
“that the Capitol Police ‘failed to meet its own high standards as well as yours.’ She added, ‘I am here to offer my sincerest apologies on behalf of the department.’ Chief Pittman’s predecessor, Steven Sund, resigned after the riot.”
“Davis argued last week in favor of the installation of a temporary government analogous to the fictional Kingdom of Gondor.
“In the 9-page filing on Monday, Davis, well aware of media criticism and analysis of the lawsuit’s claims and aims, complained about a sewage backup at his home, sleep deprivation, and being painted as an ‘extreme lunatic.’
“The next thing the Democrats need to focus on is making the filibuster more visible, which is partly a matter of floor votes but also a matter of working the press.”
“Republicans have done a great job of making it impossible for the government to function and then running against its dysfunction.
“Political junkies know about the filibuster and that most legislation, in practice, requires 60 votes. But in most cases this just amounts to a lot of things never happening. In practice, that last point is all that counts.
“In the hours before Trump took the stage [early on Nov. 4] to give the pseudo-victory speech, he had actually been in a panic. Fox News’ declaration just before midnight that Biden had won Arizona had sent the President and his advisors into a tailspin, Axios recently reported.
“The call had spoiled the momentum the President had hoped to have when the vast majority of mail ballots in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were still to be counted. But Trump stuck with the plan that, according to Axios, he had been rehearsing since mid-October.
“He prematurely declared himself the winner. He insisted that any ballots that remained to be counted were part of a scheme to steal the election for Biden.”
“Democrats are likely to eventually move to a process called budget reconciliation to pass at least part of the legislation with a simple majority in the Senate. Reconciliation typically limits a bill to tax and spending measures.
“But some in the party want to go further, exploring ways to stretch the rules and precedents that have historically constrained what policy provisions are allowed under the reconciliation process.
“Some see it as a way to pass party priorities like raising the minimum wage without ending the filibuster.”
“She was equally concerned with issues of gender in the legal profession, a subject she knew well from deep personal experience.
“As one of a handful of women at Yale Law School in the mid-1970s, and later as only the second woman to receive tenure at Stanford Law School, she found herself constantly harassed, demeaned and excluded by colleagues.
“Despite the broad constitutional concerns among Republicans, it appeared that Democrats had little intention of canceling or curtailing the trial.
“Some, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), said the vote Tuesday suggested that House impeachment managers needed to make an even more detailed case against Trump —
“calling witnesses and presenting evidence attesting to the depravity of his behavior leading up to and during the events of Jan. 6.