House Speaker Kevin McCarthy just made his opening bid in the high-stakes poker game he wants to play with President Joe Biden over raising the debt ceiling. Biden's position from the start has been that America can't afford playing games with the full faith and credit of the United States on the table, and he has called on McCarthy to play exactly the same game of poker that gets played every year, but with only the usual stakes -- which, at worse, might lead to a temporary government shutdown. Biden wants a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling from Congress and then he will be open to holding negotiations for the annual federal budget (which is an entirely separate matter).

McCarthy's bid came in the form of a letter sent to Biden, in which he mightily attempts to put his own political spin on the situation. You could even call it gaslighting, since it ignores a few salient facts and pushes forth an alternate version of reality. McCarthy's hand is weak, though, and it doesn't look like it's going to get much stronger any time soon. The House Republicans can apparently only agree on very vague statements along the lines of: "Gosh, it'd be nice to save some money," without any specifics about much of anything. What will change this (if and when it happens) is when the House Republicans start publicly releasing their own budget plans, complete with actual line items and actual budget numbers. Which, from all reports, is not likely to happen before May (at the earliest).

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Although the American news media hasn't paid it a whole lot of attention, Israel now seems to be teetering on the brink of an existential crisis over what form of government it is going to have -- one geared towards democracy and checks and balances, or one headed in a much more authoritarian direction. While international news is routinely given short shrift in America (unless our own troops are somehow involved), what seems striking to me are the parallels between what Benjamin Netanyahu is currently attempting to do and what a second Donald Trump presidential term might look like here.

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On one of the last days of the year 1170, an English king seems to have begun a long tradition of what might now be known as "mobspeak." Like unto a mobster capo who is cautious about saying or ordering his minions to do specific things which he might later be found guilty of, King Henry II -- speaking about a man who was a powerful rival at the time, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket -- uttered the ultimate in "deniability" to his knights. The wording is in doubt, since this all happened a very long time ago, but the most common phrasing known today is: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" We personally prefer the version that calls him a "meddlesome priest" instead, just for the Scooby Doo vibe, but the only account written by a contemporary of Henry worded it (in Latin): "What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric!" This version, we feel -- with only slight modernizations of the language -- could easily have been uttered by Donald Trump. It includes shaming his own followers ("miserable drones and traitors") for being insufficiently loyal and fervent in his defense, a personal playground insult to the object of his wrath ("low-born cleric"), as well as overdramatizing his own victimhood ("treated with such shameful contempt"). The whole statement is downright Trumpian, when you think of it.

What happened next, back in the 12th century, was that four of Henry's knights hied thither to Canterbury Cathedral and duly hacked the archbishop to death. Becket later achieved sainthood as a martyr to Christianity. But Henry was able to stay king and while he didn't have the four knights (who fled to Scotland) arrested, he did later ignore them when they begged him for help. Sound familiar?

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The House of Representatives tried to override President Joe Biden's first veto today, but the effort failed in a 219-200 vote -- far short of the two-thirds necessary to override (290 votes in a full House). This was the first-ever veto from Biden, on a bill Republicans had convinced a few Democrats to cross the aisle for. The bill itself would have changed a rule from the Labor Department to remove the freedom of conscience in the investment world. To put it another way, Republicans wanted a Big Government solution to a problem that essentially only exists within their own minds. Most Democrats were right to oppose imposing ideological limitations on what pension fund managers can and cannot do, and President Biden was right to veto it.

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There's a recurring theme in both American fiction and actual American history, of playing to the crowd in legal situations. And, at times, it can actually work wonders. Trying a criminal case "in the court of public opinion" can make its own mark on history -- no matter the outcome of the actual court case. Think: the Scopes Monkey Trial. Or John Brown. In both cases, the public eventually wound up on the side that actually lost the case in court (Scopes lost, and John Brown's body wound up "a-mouldering in the grave" after he was executed).

Unsurprisingly, this theme has been reflected many times in popular culture. Three movies sprang immediately to my mind, when considering the subject. The first is graphically violent and brutally portrays how even a pair of vicious serial killers can use the media's appetite for this theme to great effect: Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. The second is a lot more lighthearted and uses musical numbers to create its own condemnation (or celebration?) of the power of the media to warp a court case beyond all recognition: Chicago. And the third one is my personal favorite of the three, because it is either a total spoof or an absolute farce (take your pick), which as a bonus also features a cameo from Patty Hearst: Serial Mom, from director John Waters.

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Spring, according to my calendar, is supposed to have officially sprung. The weather in California apparently didn't get the memo yet, however, as all day long the power has gone off and on while the rain continues to pound down with winds blowing up to 80 miles per hour. This has been the wettest winter I have ever experienced here since I first moved to California back in the 1980s.

I know, I know... my complaints will get little sympathy. Those who live outside of California sneer at our "winter," and with good reason. Any place that experiences actual winter -- complete with frozen water regularly falling out of the sky -- wouldn't think much of what we've experienced, even with all the flooding and trees down and landslides. The concept of "cold" is one that coastal Californians never actually experience in any sort of meaningful way. I realize all this -- I am not a California native, therefore I have experienced real winter and know people elsewhere are right to scoff at what happens here.

To people who live within California, my complaints break a major Golden State taboo, since it is never acceptable to complain about the rain. "We need the rain" is the preferred mantra, instead. But you know what? We really don't, at this point. We've got all the water we need for the rest of the year. Reservoirs are filling up or full and the snowpack is twice normal. There won't be a drought for at least another year, to put this another way.

So can it please stop raining now? Can we revert to the normal sunny skies and pleasant temperatures? Or at the very least can the power stop going out every half hour?

(Sigh.)

Regular columns will resume tomorrow. Weather permitting, of course.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

First, there was the rather-disappointing Muellermas. Now, millions of Americans are waiting (and tweeting about) the impending "Arrestmas." For those using the hashtag, their schadenfreude is off the charts. Which is completely understandable, since people have been waiting for over two years since Donald Trump left office for him to face any sort of legal comeuppance whatsoever. And what seems like the first indictment out of the chute is the most minor, in terms of legal consequence and criminal culpability. Still... we may see Trump in a "perp walk" this week, and at this point, who doesn't want to see Trump in handcuffs... or at the very least, see his mug shot?

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[Program Note: Well, I forgot to anticipate it last week, but this year St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday. Which means our usual Friday Talking Points column is going to be pre-empted due to meself having to talk to a man about a horse, down at the pub (so to speak). So instead of looking back over the week that was, I'm going back eight years to my travelogue of a vacation I took with my authentically-Irish wife back to the Emerald Isle. The following ran as the first part of this review, so for those who are interested (who may not have read it previously), you can check out Part 2 and Part 3 of the trip as well (both of which cover Northern Ireland). I guess I picked this one to run this year because it has a "Biden gaffe" in it... ah, memories! In any case, never fear, Friday Talking Points will return next week, and for the time being I heartily encourage everyone to go out and have some fun (and kiss someone Irish, just because) to celebrate Paddy's Day. And to all, whether lucky enough to be Irish or not, a heartfelt Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!]

Originally published March 23, 2015

Greetings from Ireland!

Sure and it's a long, long way to Tipperary, as they say. How long? I really have no idea, since it's not on our itinerary this trip. Finding the answer might be something worthwhile to do on my next trip, I suppose.

Wry attempts at humor aside, here's a quick rundown of our trip so far. Oh, and before I begin: this, it should be obvious, is not going to be the usual sort of column here at CW.com, since it's not going to have anything to do with American politics at all. Well, OK, there is one Biden gaffe to mention, but aside from that.... Anyway, you have all been warned -- skip this article altogether, if travelogues aren't your cup of tea.

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Today the Senate voted on a repeal of two authorizations for war, the first from 1991 and the second from 2002. The first authorized the president to conduct the Persian Gulf War (or "Gulf War I") and the second authorized the invasion and overthrow of Iraq (or "Gulf War II"). These two wars will be unofficially over if the bill passes both chambers of Congress and is signed by President Biden. That's a historic thing to achieve, obviously.

Of course, these two wars were never official -- because the United States hasn't formally declared war on any country since World War II. Instead, in both 1991 and 2002, Congress passed an "Authorization for the Use of Military Force" (A.U.M.F.) which gave congressional consent to an American president waging a long war in a foreign country. There is a dicey question that has been argued over since Vietnam about who is really in charge of sending America troops to war -- the president or Congress -- so this left no doubt that both would be on the same page, but without going so far as to formally pass a declaration of war. What the legislation which moved forward today would do would be to officially revoke both of these A.U.M.F.s .

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When pundits handicap the possible Republican presidential field these days, several names almost always lead their lists of those who have not yet declared their candidacy (but probably soon will): Ron DeSantis (of course), Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, and Tim Scott. These are all the current favorites, and all have been at least making some moves towards actually declaring and running. Then there's a second tier of possibilities that usually gets mentioned as well: Chris Sununu, Glenn Youngkin, and maybe Kristi Noem or Greg Abbott to round things out. But for some reason, Chris Christie is almost always treated as an afterthought -- someone barely worth a mention in a tertiary list that might be called: "Oh, these people also might run, too." I've always thought this was a mistake because it seems to me that Christie is all but champing at the bit to take on Donald Trump.

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