Chuck Schumer Is on the Cusp of Butt-Fumbling the Biden Agenda
Plus, Sick Russian Propagandists Try to Redefine “Nazi” and “Anti-Semitism”
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TIM MILLER: Chuck Schumer Is on the Cusp of Butt-Fumbling the Biden Agenda.
Nothing in politics causes my eyes to glaze over quite like the arcana of congressional rulemaking. I never worked on Capitol Hill or much cared for the staid artistry of legislative machinating. Unlike the scores of determined dorks who haunt the Hill’s hallowed halls, my pocket protector is not made tumescent by clever maneuvers around the parliamentarian’s pronouncements. Nor do I enjoy referring to self-important do-nothings as “the Congressman” to give them the aura of dignity that they require to offset the trauma they experienced in the high school cafeteria.
But despite this deep-seated aversion to Hill culture there is one lawmaking procedure that I’ve become acquainted with over the years—a legislative cheat code that has become fundamental to wielding political power in Washington. It is called reconciliation.
Will Hurd thinks there are enough normal Republicans out there to back a presidential candidate who works in the middle and across party lines. The former congressman joins Charlie Sykes on today’s podcast.
On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) consider the bubbling controversy (or nontroversy?) surrounding the PG-13 rating for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Then the gang reviews the new Sam Raimi-directed feature. Is this a bog-standard MCU movie or something more? Make sure to come back to Bulwark+ Friday for our bonus episode on the wonderful world of mainstream cultist Sam Raimi. And share this episode with a friend if you enjoyed it! Your recommendation is the best advertising money can buy.
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CATHY YOUNG: Sick Russian Propagandists Try to Redefine “Nazi” and “Anti-Semitism”
The pathetic “Victory Day parades” yesterday in partly occupied Mariupol and several occupied Ukrainian cities, where enormous ribbons were apparently meant to make up for the lack of crowds, could be seen as symbolic of the debacle that the war in Ukraine has been for Russia’s image.
To make it worse, the Russian celebration of the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany—repurposed this year as cheerleading for war against Ukraine—came right on the heels of a particularly ugly controversy sparked by the Kremlin’s ongoing, self-serving redefinition of Nazism and rewriting of World War II history. As this latest episode makes clear, the Kremlin propaganda narrative not only labels any adversary of the Russian imperial project as “Nazi” but minimizes actual Nazi anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. In this sense, it is a bizarre revival of the Soviet tradition of Jewish erasure from World War II discourse—only much more strident and unabashed.
PHILLIP A. WALLACH: Two Cheers for Better Pay for Congressional Staffers.
Not long out of college, abysmally paid, without much in the way of worldly knowledge or expertise, and yet charged with mastering several issues: so goes the stereotype of a congressional staffer. If members of Congress are ill-informed, their reliance on such staffers is thought to be a major reason why—not because the staffers lack intelligence or industry, but simply because they are out of their depth.
Like most stereotypes, this one has some truth to it. Green young graduates are plentiful on Capitol Hill, especially on the House of Representatives side—but trying to understanding the shortcomings of the overall chamber with reference only to them is like trying to understand the travails of American small businesses by a thorough study of the behavior of checkout cashiers. You could find plenty to fault, yet you would be in no position to take in the real nature of the problem.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Happy Tuesday. Can we talk about Josh Naylor? 8 RBIs after the 9th? Come on.
Dude, I finally got the venue I wanted… RIP Jack Kehler.
Can you show me the problem?
BBQ on the subway?
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