Thanks!
I’m not sure I agree with a lot of your post but I think this part is especially wrong. Assuming the house passes a clean CR prior to Dec 11th. It would be suicide for the R senate to not approve it. There are two elections hanging in the balance in Georgia and if the Rs just say fuck you that will hurt them bad in a state heavily dependant on the military (#8 in military spending). So the question of who’s got who by the balls will come down to who is willing to be seen as obstructionist.
Is it possible Pelosi acted in this way to help with Biden’s election? The above arguments are pretty compelling she might have made a better deal.
Oh, the GOP won’t just say fuck-you. They’ll say they want [insert poison pill here] as part of the funding extension, or only offer to extend it through January 6, or some other gimmick like that. They’ll do just enough to make the coverage of why the funding hasn’t been extended look all both-sidesy, so most voters won’t have a clear idea of who’s to blame. They’ve been playing these games for a long time, and they play them well.
As long as Mitch McConnell doesn’t need anything from the Dems, there won’t be a vote between now and January 20, and after that only if the Dems win both GA Senate seats on January 5.
Um, apparently I was wrong. 
Washington probably didn’t, anyway.
Adams served in the First and Second Continental Congresses starting in 1774, held three or four ambassadorships, was Vice President for eight years and President for four. Not quite 30 years, but definitely a career politician.
Jefferson seems to have taken a year or so off around 1780, but otherwise had a career even longer than Adams.
This is not just imagination; this is fantasy.
These were rich, powerful men men who spent the majority their adult lives in public service positions—positions that today we would call “in Washington.” What they “never imagined” was ever being far from the halls of power.
Washington, Jefferson, and Adams lived to the ages of 67, 83, and 90. They kept their hands in influential circles for as long as they were able to do so.
And Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams, had a political career that lasted 54 years!
It seems clear to me that we as a country have utterly failed to educate our people in American history. Most people are fed this bankrupt mythology about who the “founding fathers” were, what they believed, what they did, etc.
And it seems clear to me that this mythology is used to support positions that maintain the privileges of the rich, the white, and the male. And these positions are then ascribed to our founders. It’s a form of ancestor worship in which the knowledge of the ancestors is self-serving lies.
The founders liked to claim that they were all about the “republican” values of the citizen-official, the Cincinnatus who would perform his service then be done and head back to the farm.
Of course, they were perfectly aware that in their venerated Roman Republic, the men of the best families would start on the Cursus Honorum and essentially be rising in some public function or another at different points throughout their lives.
The only distinction in the sense of the “career” politician from their time to ours was that you were not expected to really make your living at it, but rather from your lands or from whatever was your regular nonpolitical trade. But you were in politics for as long as you were able.
I thought that the main point about Cincinnatus was that he willingly gave up dictatorial powers when the military crisis was past? Not a general comment for short tenure, but rather the subordination of military power to the civil authority.
Sure, Cincinnatus may have done so. (some accounts are dubious), but Roman Politicians were career politicians. A Senator served for life.
Yes, but the Founders liked to use this story to “virtue signal” how they did not just take over after leading the Revolution, while they themselves essentially remained powerful and influential the rest of their lives, only now by solidly bolting themselves onto the structures of the new state’s civil authority .
Well, she’s got one more term as Speaker. I can’t say I’m mad. I’d love to see what she could do if the Georgia Democrats win and the Senate is controlled by Democrats.
The vote was 216-209, with three Democrats voting present, one voting for Tammy Duckworth (who is a Senator, not a Representative), and one voting for Hakeem Jeffries.
You just want to ask that one tool who voted for Tammy Duckworth – what are you trying to prove, guy?
But the closeness of the vote just underlines how narrow of a working majority Democrats have in the House. Even if Democrats get to 50 in the Senate AND eliminate the filibuster AND manage to hold their entire caucus together on key votes, it’ll only take 6 Democrats defecting on any given bill for it to die in the House.
That’s true, but hopefully there are some really basic things like restoring the VRA and continuing to give people covid relief that will have 0 dissenters.
I would be very surprised if they were able to “restore the VRA.” Congress would have to rewrite the formula for determining which jurisdictions would be subject to “pre-clearance” requirements – per Shelby County v Holder, they can’t just restore the previous formula. Coming up with a new formula would be an epic fight – Congress hasn’t even attempted to do so since the decision was passed in 2013.
Just make it universal. ALL states changing their voting laws must come under review.