The Week Ahead

I’m in upstate New York in the small town of New Paltz, enjoying a weekend away. While the weather hasn’t really cooperated fully, it has been a wonderful and relaxing two days full of great food and really, really nice people. Here was the lovely and serene view from near our table last night at Inness restaurant.

So I’ll keep it relatively short this morning. There are five stories I’ve got my eye on, so let’s run through some highlights quickly:

Government shutdown imminent

With Monday a holiday for many (g’mar chatima tova!), Republicans have just four working days until the government runs out of money and must shut down. The GOP-controlled House is no closer to a solution than it was when members returned from break weeks ago, due in large measure to Speaker McCarthy’s ineptitude and inability to control the extremists in his party who have hijacked the budget process.

President Biden has now weighed in, calling on Republicans to live up to the budget agreement they reached with the White House this past spring. But really, this isn’t a Democratic problem, and there is nothing they (being in the minority) can do in the House other than what they have already done. In the Problem Solvers Caucus, 31 Democrats have joined with 31 Republicans to present an alternative continuing resolution to fund the government through the second week of January with the top-line budget number that was agreed to earlier. McCarthy may wind up with few options but that one, or the Senate proposal offered by Chuck Schumer, meaning he must (gasp!) work with the Democrats to fund the government, just as he had to before.

Nevertheless, McCarthy is doggedly pushing forward with 11 appropriations bills that stand little chance of passage in the House and no chance of becoming law given Democratic control of the Senate. McCarthy has already had to withdraw a defense funding bill that failed a basic rule vote, the third time this has happened now in his short and troubled tenure. To appease Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, McCarthy even stripped Ukrainian funding out of it as she had demanded, but then realized he had other appropriations bills with Ukraine funding still in them, so he put it back in. As a consequence, she’s now a “no” on the rule vote, again.

Like I said, ineptitude and inability to control the extremists.

(Note: On Tuesday I will be writing a piece in The Big Picture about why it is that a cabal of extremists have gained so much power in the House, and how one obstructionist in the Senate has also done so; how this rule by extremist cabal is rather unprecedented; and what if anything can be done about it. To receive it, be sure you are signed up, either as a free subscriber or even better a paid supporter, here: thinkbigpicture.substack.com/subscribe.)

Justice Thomas in the spotlight…again

I’ve written enough times about a new Justice Thomas scandal that it’s hard to keep them all straight. In this instance, ProPublica—the same folks who broke the initial scandals around Harlan Crow, other billionaire buddies, and the justice—reported that Thomas had attended fundraising events for the Koch network. This was done in secret: He flew on a private jet in 2018 and dined privately with some of the network’s biggest donors.

This happened at least twice. And to get some perspective on how bad this is, consider this: It means that a sitting U.S Supreme Court justice was the main draw for millions in donor dollars for a network that had brought cases before the Court. This distinguishes it from other scandals, where the connection between the money and the cases was less direct.

Justice Thomas disclosed neither the event nor the gift of the private jet flight, and it isn’t clear who paid for it. As more information comes to light, I may do a longer piece about this, but suffice it for now to say, the need for ethical rules and reform is more evident than ever, and the Court’s refusal to go along with this will become a campaign issue for 2024. Democrats will seek majorities in the House and Senate to seek to pass legislation in part to curb the power and address the corruption of the Court.

And yes, an impeachment of Justice Thomas is not out of the question should Democrats retake the House. It would be well-warranted, even if the Senate is unlikely to convict and remove him by a two-thirds vote. The threat of embarrassing House hearings and an impeachment trial may be enough to force the Chief Justice to initiate reforms.

We can dream, right? Manifesting that positive outcome…

Sen. Bob Menendez indicted

It’s not just Republicans these days who are in hot legal water, though they make up the bulk of the recently indicted. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and his wife, Nadine, were indicted by a federal grand jury on bribery and corruption charges. The facts as alleged are fairly damning and, as the New York Times reported, even involve bribes with cash, cars and bars of gold bullion, with the good senator tellingly running an internet query, “How much is one kilo of gold worth” the day after a trip to Egypt to meet with his foreign influencers in 2021. (Face palm.)

For Sen. Menendez, this is the second time he’s been indicted, with the first trial resulting in a hung jury with most jurors voting to acquit. (A judge later acquitted Menendez of 7 of the 18 federal counts against him, then wound up dropping all remaining charges, causing the Justice Department, which had wanted to retry him, to drop its case.)

But even with Biden’s Justice Department being notoriously favorable to Democrats, at least according to Trump’s GOP, prosecutors somehow still decided to convene a new grand jury to investigate the Democratic senator. (If my sarcasm isn’t clear, please forgive me.) The Justice Department did this after it became clear Menendez had been emboldened by the acquittals and the dropped charges (imagine that!) and was continuing to commit outrageous crimes. Sounds like someone we all know.

Most of the New Jersey Democratic establishment has called for Menendez to step down, but so far there’s no indication that he will do so, even though he really, really should given the weight of the known evidence. That alone would render him ineffective as a leader and a huge distraction should he continue to serve.

Yes, his resignation would further complicate votes in the Senate, at least until his replacement could be named by the Democratic governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, and sworn in. But it’s the right thing to do, and in my view if the Democrats are to retain moral authority in governance, we can’t make exceptions to it when it’s our guy allegedly doing the clumsy and apparent criming.

UAW strike developments and impeachment inquiry

Two last notes before I sign off for the day to go have coffee, get brunch and do some sightseeing.

The New York Times is reporting that the UAW may be going easy on Ford while expanding its strike against GM and Stellantis. This is because Ford has done more to meet its demands than the other two companies, meaning there may be a break in the dam. An agreement with Ford could put serious pressure on the other two companies to reach agreement as well. Ford reached a deal with a union representing its Canadian workers that provides for pay increases up to 25 percent over the three years of the contract as well as bonuses, better retirement benefits and protections for workers as the company retools to make more EVs. Importantly, Ford granted the union the right to strike over plant closings, a key concession because EVs require fewer parts and labor. We will need to see if GM and Stellantis accede to similar demands.

And let’s not forget one last thing: The GOP House majority, even though it hasn’t done its main job of passing the budget and funding the government, is planning to commence impeachment inquiry hearings against Biden just two days before the shutdown. The hearings are nothing more than an extension of the same fishing expedition that, after five years, has still caught nothing in its wide net. This after the House spent a lot of its political capital attacking the Justice Department over Hunter Biden, even though he was actually indicted on gun-related charges by Special Counsel Weiss.

We can only hope that Americans in the middle, who haven’t made up their minds about who to vote for in 2024, come to understand the deep dysfunction of the Republican Party. Sadly, that may only become clear when they shut everything down except the impeachment hearings, and federal workers once more go without paychecks, all while the GOP holds the budget hostage over issues it already lost and on top-line numbers they already agreed to earlier.

Okay, time for that coffee! Have a great day, and I’ll be back again tomorrow.

Jay

A programming note: I’ll be traveling to a friend’s 40th birthday party celebration this week and may have limited access, and too much wine, to be able to update each day. We’ll have to play it by ear because I don’t know how much down time there will be to research and write! Living on the edge, I know.