Today’s Edition: Reality is not a partisan issue.

September 23, 2021

          Four legislative priorities are in flux: the infrastructure bill, the reconciliation package, the debt limit, and the continuing authorization for the federal government to spend money. Democrats have been huddling for several days to advance all four items. The reporting on those discussions has been confusing—likely because the discussions themselves are in a confused state. And that is all thanks to Mitch McConnell who (once again) fabricated a rule that has never existed in the history of our republic. McConnell’s new rule is, “If a party controls the presidency and both chambers of Congress, they must assume sole responsibility for raising the debt limit.”

          As I noted yesterday, the debt limit has been raised on a bipartisan basis nearly 100 times in the last 80 years. McConnell’s new rule is the opposite of bipartisanship—it declares that raising the debt limit is a strictly partisan undertaking that belongs to one party. And to enforce his hyper-partisan rule, McConnell is using the filibuster, which defenders claim is designed to ensure bipartisanship. The lie about the filibuster is thus laid bare for all to see: It is not a tool to encourage bipartisanship; it is a partisan weapon used as a cudgel by the Republican Party. If Republicans use the filibuster to prevent the funding of government operations, Democrats should end the filibuster as it relates to the debt ceiling. See Slate, “Democrats should nuke the filibuster to end the dumb debt-ceiling standoff.”

          There are many ways to end the filibuster, some that require 60 votes and some that require 51 votes. See Brookings, “What is the Senate filibuster, and what would it take to eliminate it?” But there is a more straightforward way to end the filibuster: Vice President Harris can declare that the filibuster is unconstitutional. Vice President Richard Nixon declared portions of the filibuster rule unconstitutional in 1957. While that is a radical response to McConnell’s newest fabricated rule, it is preferable to the U.S. defaulting on its obligations and sending the world economy into a tailspin—which is a reality that McConnell is willing to accept.

          Jennifer Rubin, writing in the Washington Post, notes that Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen met with McConnell to urge him to support raising the debt ceiling. Yellen brought in three former Treasury secretaries (two Republicans) to help her plead her case. Former Secretary Larry Summers reportedly said at the meeting that “Reality is not a partisan thing. Raising the debt limit is acknowledging reality, not making a partisan choice.” Rubin notes that Summers’ plea was unavailing. She writes denying reality has become a partisan exercise for Republicans:

          Acknowledging reality is the most partisan thing to do these days — whether it’s who staged the attack on the Capitol, how to protect the country from the delta variant, who won the 2020 election or what happens when the United States does not pay its bills.

See Jennifer Rubin, WaPo op-ed, “More evidence that talking to Republicans is useless.”

          All of the above is anxiety producing. But Speaker Pelosi again gave assurances on Thursday that both bills would pass and that the U.S. would avoid default. Monday is a significant date in the ongoing game of chicken between so-called “centrists” and the rest of the Democratic caucus. Democratic leadership promised centrists a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Monday, and they are holding leadership to that promise notwithstanding the national emergency on the budget. Expect dramatic headlines over the weekend as Democrats attempt to break the logjam of their four legislative priorities.

House Select Committee Subpoenas Trump Aides regarding January 6th insurrection.

          The House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection has issued subpoenas to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, Pentagon Chief of Staff Kash Patel, and Steve Bannon. See NYTimes. Each played a role in encouraging Trump to pursue his bogus claims of election fraud and to overturn the election by preventing the count of Electoral ballots.

          Disclosures in the Woodward/Costa book, “Peril,” reveal that Steve Bannon encouraged Trump to hold a “day of reckoning” on January 6th that would “kill the Biden presidency in the crib.” Bannon’s statements are relevant to proving that Trump intended to incite an insurrection on January 6th.  When combined with the memo by John Eastman that urged Trump to overturn the election, Bannon’s statements make clear that Trump was plotting a coup—or at least being urged by his advisers to engineer a coup. Let’s hope that the DOJ has ordered multiple copies of Woodward’s book and has an ample supply of yellow highlighters.

          Yesterday’s newsletter contained a error. I said that John Eastman was a professor at Chapman University and that his memo was riddled with errors because he was a law clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas. I was mistaken. Eastman resigned from his position as a professor at Chapman University. But he was a clerk for Justice Thomas and his memo was riddled with errors. See Teri Kanefield in WaPo, “The Eastman memo was alarming. Legally speaking, it was also nonsense.” (“So despite its ludicrous reasoning and absurd interpretation of the Constitution, the memo [is] evidence of Trump’s intentions.”)

Storm warnings in Maine.

          Maine seems like such a lovely state. But it only recently emerged from an eight-year hell under the governorship of Paul LePage. LePage is just like Trump—but without the Trump’s polish and self-restraint. LePage is fond of saying, “I was Trump before Trump.” LePage nearly destroyed Maine during his tenure, to the consternation of Republicans and Democrats alike. See The Beacon (March 17, 2018) “How Governor LePage helped destroy the Maine Republican Party.” (LePage’s policies “lead to two recessions in Maine, even while the rest of the country steadily recovered.”)

         After LePage served two consecutive terms as governor, he was not eligible to run for a third consecutive term. But he is eligible to run for a third, non-consecutive term in 2022. He recently declared his candidacy to return as Maine’s governor. In normal times, a candidate who had “joyfully mused about bombing newspaper offices and shooting rivals” would have no chance of being elected. But in the Trump era, LePage is red meat to Trump’s base. See Politico, “Paul LePage Is Back. And Maine Is Terrified.”

          You would be justified in believing that rational, self-respecting Mainers would reject LePage. But Senator Susan Collins just endorsed LePage, saying that he is Maine’s best hope for fiscal responsibility. (See above cite about LePage driving Maine into two recessions.)

          So, here’s my question: What happened to Susan Collins, and what does her endorsement portend for Maine and its Republican Party? On the surface, Collins seems like a nice person, but has revealed herself to be a phony and a coward. If Collins is indicative of how Maine Republicans will deal with LePage, he will be the GOP’s nominee for governor in 2022. Democrats must do everything they can to support the current Governor, Janet Mills, who has returned the state to some semblance of normalcy. (You can contribute to Janet Mills on EMILY’s list, here: Janet Mills for Governor, Maine | EMILY's List.)

          Speaking of Maine’s U.S. Senator Collins, she claims to be a supporter of a woman’s right to control reproductive decisions. But she just said she would not support Democratic legislation to protect a woman’s right to choose. See MSN, “Surprising No One, Susan Collins Will Not Support New Abortion Rights Bill.” Collins said her objection was based on the fact that the bill would violate the religious freedom of healthcare providers by “requr[ing] them to participate in [abortions].”  

          Contrary to Collins’ assertion, the text of the proposed legislation does not compel any healthcare provider to participate in abortions. Rather, it states that a provider “has a statutory right” to provide abortion services and that the provider’s patients have a statutory right to receive those services “from that provider.” Protecting the right to offer services is fundamentally different than the compelling a provider to offer services. Senator Collins’ objections are false and deceitful, intended to cover up the fact that she does not support protecting a woman’s ability to control her reproductive rights.

          I hope that the women (and men) of Maine will let Senator Collins know how they feel about her endorsement of LePage and her lies about the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021.

Flipping Senator Rob Portman’s Seat in Ohio.

          Republican Senator Rob Portman from Ohio announced in January that he would retire from the U.S. Senate. Flipping that seat from red to blue will be key to defending the Democratic majority in the Senate. Although the primary field is still shaping up, Congressman Tim Ryan—a 10-term representative from Ohio’s blue-collar Mahoning Valley—is running to fill the vacancy. Ryan has racked up hundreds of endorsements from current and former state and federal office-holders, labor unions, mayors and county officials, activists and party leaders.

          A friend (and reader) who is on Ryan’s Senate team called to ask for support for his end-of-quarter virtual fundraising reception with Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday, September 30th at 6:00 P.M. ET / 3:00 P.M. PT. The link is here: Tim Ryan for U.S. Senate.

Concluding Thoughts.

          Democrats are definitely going through a rough patch. But as Winston Churchill never said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” There is a LOT going on, much of it bad or worrying. I haven’t even touched on the crisis at the border with Haitian refugees, the failure of police reform, or specific budget fights that are dividing Democrats. But the drama of the last few weeks doesn’t even begin to match the bad news of a single day in the Trump administration.

          While we should give due attention to serious issues faced by the Biden administration, we should also take a lesson from the Republican playbook under Trump. They realized that the crisis of today would be replaced by the crisis of tomorrow. In the end, only a few crises emerged as long-term challenges for Trump. So, too, with Biden. The controversy over the withdrawal from Afghanistan has been replaced with the crisis at the border. Whether either of those issues will matter politically in six months is not clear. (Of course, neither issue can nor should be reduced to political calculus, but I am only addressing the political dimension in this note.)

          We can’t exhaust ourselves over each day’s news. Nor should we collapse all the battles we must face in the future into a single moment of worry today. We will have time to deal with future battles as they arise, and many of the events of today will be irrelevant next week. We should spend more time and energy investing in the long-term goals for 2022 and 2024. Not only will that investment bring success nearer, but it will also provide a productive and healthy outlet for our anxiety over the bottomless depravity of the GOP.

          I hope everyone will find time over the weekend to rest, reflect, and reconnect with friends and family. For those of you interested in the status of the fire near our cabin, my Managing Editor posted a video on her blog addressing that subject. See JillsGardenBlog, Fire Update.

          Talk to you Monday!