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This week, there was a massive toxic explosion of hot air and noxious fumes, which caused many to flee in terror from the spectacle. Also, in Hawai'i, the volcano Mauna Loa erupted.
Sorry for being so sarcastic, but we couldn't resist.
But we'll get to all of the White supremacy and Nazism and Donald Trump in a bit, instead let's start off with some positive news.
It's a saying that may stretch back to Roman times. In English, the first citation (at least from Wikipedia, I haven't checked the O.E.D. yet, sorry...) dates from 1612: "For they that sleep with dogs, shall rise with fleas." In this particular case, Donald Trump breaking bread with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes has left much of the rest of the Republican Party feeling awfully flea-ridden. And the whole thing just got a lot worse.
There was a historic passing of the torch today, as Hakeem Jeffries was unanimously voted leader of the House Democrats in the next Congress. He will become the first Black leader of a political party in either chamber of Congress, which is an enormous milestone to achieve. Meanwhile, over on the Republican side, Kevin McCarthy is still scrambling to get enough votes from his caucus to achieve his goal of becoming the next speaker. This should all be seen as a harbinger of things to come, for both political parties. So let's take a look at where both of them are and what we might expect to see in the 118th Congress.
A lot of people work on America's railroads. Some of them are ready to go on strike. This could, as early as this weekend, cause major disruptions in the supply chains of just about everything. And we all remember last year's holiday shopping season, when supply chain problems were so acute. So President Joe Biden and Congress are about to step into the fray and derail the possibility of a strike (so to speak). They could do so in a variety of ways, but whatever happens is likely to happen quite quickly (given the deadlines involved).
There are 12 Unions involved in negotiations with the major rail carriers. The railroad barons have been making money hand over fist of late, but still are being chintzy with their workers. They made one offer earlier this year that was rejected by the Unions. Negotiations were then undertaken and a compromise was worked out in September, with the help of President Biden's administration. The compromise is fairly decent in terms of pay raises, but it still lacks a very basic workers' right: guaranteed paid sick leave and paid time off for family emergencies. The compromise moved a baby step towards what most workers (and virtually all unionized workers) get as part of their employment, but only incrementally. Workers will still be left without the same consideration workers get in virtually every other industry: the ability to go to their boss and say: "I need a day off to go to the doctor," and not have their paycheck or their status with the company adversely affected as a direct result.
Congress returns to Washington this week, with an extremely limited amount of time left to get anything done before the year-end holidays. As I wrote last week, the lame-duck Congress has many very important things to get done, some of which may be incredibly time-consuming in the Senate (such as having to proactively raise the debt ceiling using budget reconciliation rules, which will permit the bill to pass with only Democratic votes). However, at least the time pressures in the Senate will not include filling as many federal judgeships as possible, since Democrats will still be in control after January 3rd. What would have been critical if the political power was about to shift in the chamber can now wait until next year -- and it might even be easier and faster then, if Senator Raphael Warnock wins re-election in next Tuesday's Georgia runoff election. If Democrats have 51 senators in the new Congress, they won't have to have any power-sharing arrangements with Republicans, which will speed up the committee process in a big way. But even with the judicial confirmations off the table for now, there's still quite a lot for the Senate to do, to attempt to (as one article memorably put it) "crazyproof" as much as possible before the Republicans take over the House of Representatives. But one thing that should not be undertaken in the lame-duck Senate is moving Senator Joe Manchin's pet "permitting reform" bill forward.
I should begin with a program note: this will be the last column for this week. See you back here next Monday! I am taking the vacation off because really, who wants to read about politics over Thanksgiving weekend anyway?
It's been a slow political week in the news (other than all the bad news on the legal front for Donald Trump), so instead of chasing stories today I thought I would just make a little list of things I am personally thankful for and leave it at that.
This isn't a definitive list, of course. I am also thankful for my friends and my loving family; from my wonderful wife to all the relatives I now zoom with on a regular basis (COVID sparked a lot of changes that have indeed improved life, all of which I am thankful for as well). And I am thankful for personal reasons as well, but those type of thanks are really reserved for pre-turkey-gobbling remarks around the dinner table and not for public consumption.
Instead, here are the ones I would like to share with all my readers. I hope that you and yours have a very thankful day yourselves and eat until you are stuffed. [And for our Canadian readers, please backdate this column to last month, so it is appropriate for the northern version of Thanksgiving!]
That is a rather convoluted headline, but I had to work the word "turkey" in there somehow, so I apologize. But the thought is real -- the lame-duck session of Congress has a lot to get done in a very short period of time, and if it doesn't succeed on multiple fronts it will set the stage for future chaos. The time to act is now, because the consequences of not acting would be severe.
There are two critical things the lame-duck Congress must achieve, as well as a number of other issues it would be nice to see some progress on. The Senate actually started with one of these, by advancing the Respect For Marriage Act past a filibuster attempt with an impressive 62-37 vote. They still have to hold a final vote on it, and then send it over to the House but it is looking like this will be the first thing accomplished in the lame-duck session. It should rightly be seen as a rebuke of the Supreme Court's radical overreach, so it is important.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced at the end of last week the appointment of a special counsel to lead the various Department of Justice investigations against Donald Trump. Since then, the Monday-morning-quarterbacking has been fierce and all over the map as to whether this was a proper and necessary step, and (if so) whether the timing of it had been right or not. Meanwhile Trump (of course) denounced the whole thing as persecution by (as he put it) a "super-radical-left special counsel." Trump, of course, provided no evidence whatsoever to back up such a claim. All par for the course with Trump, who believes that anyone who doesn't see him as pure as the driven snow simply must (almost by definition, to him) be some sort of super-radical-lefty.
Trump, from all reports, was at least halfway convinced that announcing his third campaign for the presidency would somehow give him the same "get out of court free" card as he had when he was president. This was never the case, but it's easy to see how he could have been convinced otherwise, when you consider the quality of the "legal advisors" he has left. If anything, his announcement probably sped things up, because Garland obviously felt obliged to answer Trump's campaign announcement in some way.
It was another rather momentous week in politics, as the Republicans chalked up enough midterm wins to retake control of the House of Representatives but fell short in the Senate, where Democrats picked up one seat (which is enough to assure them control) with one race still waiting for a runoff election in early December. The GOP will have a razor-thin House majority, which is quite likely to produce nothing but chaos for the next two years. After the results were known, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she (and her whole team) would step away from leadership roles and allow a generational shift to happen in the Democratic House caucus. And Donald Trump formally announced his third bid for the presidency, which didn't exactly go over as well as he might have hoped. Plus there will be the first White House wedding in years, and Joe Biden will become the first octogenarian to occupy the Oval Office when he turns 80 years old on Sunday. All in all, a big week.
Nancy Pelosi will always be considered a historic speaker of the House of Representatives for many reasons -- the most facile of which to see is that she was the first woman to be speaker in all of American history. She was closer to the presidency than any woman had gotten before (this was true up until Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president). Historic things happened during her leadership, and she was always at the center of them. She acquired political power and wielded it well, which is really no surprise since she literally learned politics "at her daddy's knee," as a little girl. She has done Baltimore proud, to put that another way, as well as the D'Alesandro family (a Maryland political dynasty).
But Pelosi's breaking of the glass ceiling is really not the most important reason why she will be remembered as a historic speaker. Because she was so effective. She was the strongest leader of the House since probably Tip O'Neill -- and that is really saying something. She wielded power with great skill and she managed to accomplish a feat that many (including myself) had believed almost impossible: she successfully herded the Democratic cats in the House. She got them all moving in one direction, she held them together through thick and thin, and even when she was merely the minority leader she still showed she had better control over her caucus than whatever Republican was in charge of the House.
That is a phenomenal achievement. And it is almost certainly going to be the one she will be most remembered for. She got things done. She held her caucus together. She didn't give up when she lost the majority the first time (as most speakers do), she instead put in the years as minority leader and led her Democrats back into power. She served under four presidents. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they eventually name a House office building after her, as she has earned such an accolade with her record.
