that s where this is going to run into trouble. republican politics right now is purely performtive. so there s not a lot of opportunity for them to be thoughtful policymakers to get things down. the thing that kevin mccarthy has going for him now is low expectations and time before they have to actually do anything meaningful. so it was really important that right before the holidays, they passed a long-term spending bill. kevin mccarthy doesn t have to worry about funding the government for several months. so what he can do now is put up bills that are purely messaging. getting rid of irs agents, plays to the base. you re going to see a lot of those things where he s stacking up wins, easy things that are going nowhere in the senate, but allow him to tell his members we re doing things that our base wants. he s going to have to cut a deal. he s going to have to find a way to fund the government. do a debt limit increase. that s when trouble is going to come.
this week, he s going to survive and, again, it s going to get a lot harder fair ily soon, but at least he ll have a little breathing room. when you look at the promises, they are voting today on a resolution to create a special judiciary subcommittee on what they call the weaponization of the federal government. that could include reviewing investigations into former president trump. so does other stuff get done if you re doing so much of that? ? there are folk on the hill, and you can nod if you re among them, any of you, that this is going to occupy a huge amount of time of what gets done there. absolutely. the keyword is performtive. this is mass of the republican party does not care about the respect of of colleagues or committee assignments or passing
at its worst when you say the extreme of both parties, and i m sorry, but there s only one party in america that tried to overthrow its own government. that was the republican party. there s only one party in america that s trying to take away the votes of women in this country. that s the republican party. there s only one party in america that has an active effort to try to suppress voters, suppress communities, that s the democratic party. so one party is fighting to address climate change, to rein in gun violence, the other party is trying to stop all of those things. that s the line. that s the difference. so sinema is saying both sides are extreme, that s such bs. it s 100% performtive. first of all, she sounds like
agree with that proposition they should be at the table f not, then they should not be at the table. that s what you see in republican leadership. they complain they re left out. they don t have the numbers. this is something for hakeem jeffries to manage. it will be a difficult task. he has frequently spoken out about the more progressive lawmakers. he s a progressive lawmaker himself. he s not all the way on the left. he also spoke out against what he calls the performtive nature of some segments of progressive politics these days. i don t know. as complicated as that choreography, is i think most people watching these deliberations unfold rather be in a democratic caucus than the republican caucus. it just looks like an absolutely brutal path for anybody who is
other things. there s no special prosecutor or special counsel. is garland the right man, the right ag for this pretty historic moment? it depends on your view of what the justice department should do. i don t see merrick garland trying donald trump for other crimes, for financial crimes. you know, the mueller investigation, mueller famously no made decision on obstruction of justice. so i ll just be honest, i don t see that happening. i think this is the most important issue of merrick garland s tenure. he is an institutionalist. he believes that the justice department should prosecute people equally based on the facts. that might not apply in this political atmosphere. i talked to again to one of his aides and they said, you won t see merrick garland becoming a performtive attorney general. he doesn t give many speeches or go out there and talk much to the public. and the question is, does that work in this political era.