by jpitney | Jan 22, 2022 | Congress, Elections, House of Representatives, Senate
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: What has been overlooked in media accounts, amidst all the speechifying, caucusing and presidential jawboning over voting rights, is the roundabout way the issue was being forced in both houses, using the drastic tactic of attaching an...
by jpitney | Jan 20, 2022 | Congress, House of Representatives, Senate, Violence
Jim Saksa at Roll Call: CQ Roll Call asked every member of Congress whether they had received a death threat since 2020. Of the 147 who responded, 110 — or about 75 percent — said yes. While more Democrats replied to our inquiry than Republicans, 95 to 52, death...
by jpitney | Jan 5, 2022 | Congress, Deliberation, Senate
James Wallner at R Street Institute reflects on Harry Reid: Reid’s skill as a leader allowed him to essentially eliminate genuine deliberation on the Senate floor while ensuring that the Senate still legislated, a balancing act that his successors have struggled to...
by jpitney | Dec 29, 2021 | Civility, Congress, House of Representatives, Senate
I am sad tonight but grateful for the friendship I had with Harry. We disagreed on many things, sometimes famously. But we were always honest with each other. In the years after we left public service, that honesty became a bond. Harry was a fighter until the end....
by jpitney | Aug 1, 2021 | Congress, Infrastruture, Senate
Carl Hulse at The New York Times: Everyone in Congress these days seems to believe everyone else is up to something. It is the legacy of the polarization and power plays that have robbed Congress of an essential ingredient to reaching big policy agreements. “Trust is...
by jpitney | Jun 2, 2021 | civic virtue, Civility, Senate
From Washington and Lee University: John W. Warner III ’49, distinguished former U.S. senator and trustee emeritus of Washington and Lee, died May 26, 2021. He was 94. “Sen. Warner’s decades-long public service to his country and alma mater exemplifies the attributes...
