As expected, the postponement of the vote is being treated as a "crushing blow" and a "huge setback" to Biden's agenda. Utterly ludicrous. Such things happen all the time with complex legislation. This kind of coverage, which masquerades as savvy, is the opposite of savvy. 1/
Now, we don't know if the bills will survive. The whole house of cards very well may collapse. But the idea that this postponement is itself the harbinger of doom is nonsense. Again, it all very well may fail. But if anything, last night makes success marginally more likely. 2/2
CODA: As we wrote, a delay should NOT be seen as the sky falling. Instead of misinforming readers, tell them this is typical of major, complex legislation. Differences remain deep. But if the bills remain linked, bridging them is more likely, not less:
If you don't believe us, at least listen to the savvy @PunchbowlNews team. Their analysis of the dynamics is very close to what @paulwaldman1 and I laid out in that piece, particularly in terms of how Pelosi's choreography is designed to work here.
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On MSNBC, Rep Katie Porter unleashed an epic beatdown on Kyrsten Sinema that captured a core truth: Her bad faith and caginess do profound disservice to her own voters. We need to bring this debate back to essentials. It's about people and public service: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Crucially, Rep Katie Porter pointed out that Sinema and Manchin refuse to say what they want to "do for their constituents."
This is the essence of the matter. As public servants, what do you stand for? What do you want to do with your official position?
The bill is the heart of the Democratic Party agenda for the future.
Which provisions designed to provide a lift to millions, secure a more habitable planet, and make the tax code fairer and less prone to elite chicanery — which would they throw out?
Sinema's latest nonsense wrecks a key talking point: That the left is demanding "all or nothing." Progressives are asking her to say what concessions she wants *from them* on reconciliation. She won't say! The left is easily the more reasonable party here: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
At this point, the levels of bad faith coming from Kyrsten Sinema are genuinely hard to fathom. She seems to be insisting on passage of the infrastructure bill *entirely* on her own terms. That seems almost designed to make any accommodation impossible:
Dems hoped to "shame" McConnell on the debt limit. Instead they're sputtering with limp outrage while Mitch gets "savvy" points from the media. Time to nix the debt limit in reconciliation. Force Republicans to be the ones howling with ineffectual outrage: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Right now, Dems are searching for *another* procedural trick on the debt limit.
This is absurd! Kill it already! It can be done in reconciliation, by simply tying it to the debt.
This solves Dems' substantive *and* political problems. Here's how:
Yes, the Arizona "audit" imploded on Trump. But people are missing a big part of the story: Its "findings" continue to push the lie that the 2020 outcome was dubious, and Republicans are gearing up to use this to fake-justify voter suppression. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
For months, we were told the "audit" was about restoring voter "confidence."
But even though it couldn't find the fraud it looked for, its "findings" still say we should lack confidence in our elections, and that more voting restrictions are needed!
Many headlines are saying the Arizona audit "confirmed" Biden's win.
Don't do this! It implies that the audit was about empirical verification of the outcome, normalizing this practice. It was actually about undercutting the legitimacy of a Dem victory:
A key tell from @RepJayapal: On NPR just now, she asked centrists to detail their demands for reconciliation and said she thinks it'll be done in 2-3 weeks. Still a brutal slog, but I think that cracks open the door for a way forward. It looks like this: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
@RepJayapal It looks like @SpeakerPelosi has a strategy: She's hoping to get all sides to agree on general outlines for the reconciliation bill.
This may create a way forward. It clears space for centrists to be specific on what they want to see in reconciliation:
Let's stop asking whether Trump and his cronies "believe" 2020 was stolen. The truth is worse: The *deliberate* manufacture of lies is the essential pretext to subverting our democratic order. Right wing media continues to play a key role here. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
The news that the Trump team knew they were lying about Dominion has larger significance:
It illustrates the role of *knowingly* manufactured propaganda in subverting election outcomes.
When we ask if they 'believe" the lies, it's the wrong question: