A window of opportunity in Congress is going to close soon. As usual in these things, Senator Joe Manchin is the key deciding factor as to whether Democrats will hit this window or miss it. In fact, there are actually two windows, a big one and one with a specific focus -- and Manchin is holding both of them up at once.

The big window is that this month seems to be the final chance for passing any portion of the Build Back Better bill. If it doesn't get done before the August month-long congressional break, then it's just not going to happen (at least until after the midterm election -- who knows what the lame duck Congress will do....). And there are several pieces of this under discussion, including lowering the cost of prescription drugs and doing something about climate change. But the piece that desperately needs attention is the fact that the COVID-sponsored boost to the Obamacare health insurance subsidies is going to turn into a pumpkin at the end of this year. It was initially only a temporary measure, passed in the midst of President Biden's first big accomplishment (the COVID relief package) right after he took office. Most Democrats want to now either make it permanent or at least extend it another year or two. Manchin, so far, is not on board.

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After an extended break (which was interrupted by the unplanned sixth of these live hearings), the House Select Committee to Investigate January 6th reconvened today for the seventh such hearing. Today's hearing centered around the violent rightwing militia groups that attacked the United States Capitol, and how they were encouraged to do so by Donald Trump.

At the end of the hearing, Vice Chair Liz Cheney previewed what will be the next hearing (which she promised would happen "next week"), when the committee will walk through Trump's actions on January 6th itself.

There were really four star witnesses today, two of whom appeared live, one of whom appeared on video, and one who remained anonymous, with his voice scrambled electronically -- for his own safety, just like someone testifying at a mob trial.

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After a holiday break, the House Select Committee on January 6th will reconvene their public hearing schedule tomorrow, at 1:00 P.M. Eastern time. The only thing they've revealed (as of this writing) is that tomorrow's testimony will focus on the role played by right-wing militias such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, and will also highlight Donald Trump's actions (and, more importantly, inaction) on January 6th. No witness lists have been made public yet, so we might have to wait until tomorrow to even know who will be there (although there is already plenty of in-depth media speculation about who could show up).

This is all in keeping with the committee playing its cards very close to the vest all the way throughout this miniseason of "must-see TV." Nobody knows what will happen until the last minute -- which does indeed build tension and "buzz" with the audience. We've already had one hearing cancelled at the last minute (during the first week) and one surprise hearing that wasn't announced until the day before (at the beginning of what was supposed to be a two-week July 4th break). Right now, the big unanswered question is: how many more public hearings are we going to get?

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President Joe Biden capped off a pretty good week with a pretty good speech today, given right before he signed an executive order to do what he could to protect women's rights. Biden did so, of course, in response to the "extreme" Supreme Court decision which overturned Roe v. Wade.

In his remarks, the president got visibly angry at one particular point, a point that should be repeated by every Democrat running for office this year as many times as possible. Biden was speaking about the report that a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who had been impregnated due to being raped was denied an abortion and had to travel to neighboring Indiana to get one. Here's what Biden had to say about it:

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Hey, kiddies, it's time to play "shadow boxing with Joe Manchin" once again! Yes, his teasing game has begun anew, where Democrats get their hopes up that Senator Manchin will finally agree to pass something -- anything -- from President Joe Biden's agenda, in the hopes of counteracting the predicted coming "red wave" in November's midterm elections. Once again, Manchin is playing it coy, as he is "in negotiations" with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but has not actually committed to much of anything. The deadline this time around is the end of July, right before all of Congress disappears into the summer breeze for an entire month. Of course, they're all still on their two-week July 4th vacation this week, so nothing will really happen until next week, which leaves a rather abbreviated window.

The game is the same as it has always been: Manchin acts like a little tease, continually getting everyone else's hopes up, but then at the last minute he manufactures a brand new reason why he can't support the deal he just spent many weeks/months negotiating -- and the whole thing falls apart. Manchin, in the meantime, gets all the Sunday morning political interviews he wants, and generally is the center of Washington's attention while the dance goes on.

To say this is frustrating to all the other Democrats is understating the matter, at this point. Which is why we went with "Here We Go Again" as a title, today. It feels like "fool me five or six times..." at this point, it really does.

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Control of the United States Senate will be one of the biggest political prizes fought over in the 2022 midterm elections this November. So far, out of all the 2022 Senate races, Democrats look fairly well positioned to either hold onto their thin majority or perhaps even expand it by one or two. In what is supposed to be a very Republican-friendly year, the GOP's chances of taking the Senate seem dimmer than ever. This is due to one very big reason: personality matters. The quality of the candidates matter.

This isn't the first time Republicans may be blowing what could be a big victory for them. Remember Christine "I Am Not A Witch" O'Donnell? Or Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin? Nominating complete nutjobs to Senate races is not exactly a new thing for the GOP, in other words. And in our current Trumpian era, they're going to be relying on some very nutty candidates indeed.

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I am blowing off work today, everyone. I actually wrote a new column yesterday and I had a rather large backlog of things to do in the outside world that needed attention today (one of which was to go to our friendly local Department of Motor Vehicles office... sigh), and by the time I got all of them done, I was too frazzled to write today.

So instead, here's the very first Independence Day column I ever wrote. Because pursuing happiness should truly be a year-round effort, and not confined to one particular day.

Originally published July 4th, 2007

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
-- Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

That line will be widely quoted across this land today, in parks and bandstands, on radio and in newsprint, from California to the New York islands, in countless big-city parades and from a myriad of small-town gazebos.

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Let's begin with a big "Happy Independence Day, everyone!"

This July Fourth it is tempting for progressives and all others who care about basic human rights to want to declare independence from the Supreme Court. Packed with radicals, it has begun what could be a terrifying reign over American life for decades to come. Who knows what laws they will target next? The basic understanding that whichever candidate gets the most votes wins an election, perhaps? The possibilities are frightening.

But there is a way to completely defang the Supreme Court, and one that would be far easier to accomplish than, say, increasing the membership of the court. "Court-packing" has all kinds of historical baggage, and to flip the court Democrats would have to appoint four more justices -- which would seem like too radical a step for many. But there's another way Congress could completely strip the court of the power of interfering with basic human rights, and it is built right in to the Constitution itself.

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[Program Note: We are pleased to announce that after a rather extended hiatus (due to several outrages being exposed to the American people in Washington), this column is returning today to its standard format.]

The two biggest political topics of the past week were the continuing outrages piling up from both the Supreme Court and the House Select Committee on January 6th.

On Tuesday, a young aide who worked for Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, appeared in a surprise House committee hearing. The previous week, the committee had let it be known that there would be no hearings over the two-week Independence Day break. But a day beforehand, a new hearing was announced without fanfare and without any details.

The witness who appeared, Cassidy Hutchinson, had apparently been getting threatening messages from those still surrounding Donald Trump. They read like mob bosses leaning on a witness who might spill the beans:

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This month has been a monumental one in politics, containing several far-reaching Supreme Court decisions and the January 6th committee hearings. While it is too soon to tell, all of this may have shifted things in Democrats' favor heading into the midterm congressional elections. Democratic voters are a lot more engaged and motivated to vote, while Republicans are losing ground. Whether this proves to be enough to counteract the expected "red wave" in November is still a very open question, but it is clear that the shift has so far favored the Democrats.

Overturning Roe v. Wade has been the biggest driver of this shift. What was once unimaginable or unthinkable is now hard, cold reality. And people are angry. Democrats have already capitalized on this in two ways -- Democratic candidates are now making their support for women's rights a central issue to their campaigns, and in states where it is possible, ballot measures are being prepared to allow the people to directly vote on the issue. These measures have a good chance of passing, at least in some states, because the polling shows people are much more pro-choice than anti-abortion. Importantly, this could boost turnout, in much the same way that Republicans so effectively used gay marriage bans in the 1990s and 2000s. If people are motivated to vote on an abortion referendum, then they'll likely also vote for the Democrats on the ballot.

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