Good morning,
Big day in the House of Representatives: The January 6 select committee is effectively going to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt. What happens next? As this CNN.com piece explains, the whole House then votes on whether to advance the criminal contempt referral to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. The U.S. attorney can then bring the matter before a grand jury, which can demand (or try to demand) Bannonâs record and compel (or try to compel) him to appear.
Itâs all going to take a loooooong time. And Monday, Donald Trump filed a crap lawsuit against the committee and the National Archives to try to block the release of relevant documents. Trump is asserting an executive privilege he obviously no longer enjoys. Make no mistake: The stakes here are huge. This will probably end up in the Supreme Court. If Trump & Co. get away with this, the idea of congressional oversight, a principle since the beginning of the republic, may be dead.
On the Build Back Better front, Joe Biden is having two separate meetings today with House progressives and House moderates. This, after having met with Representative Pramila Jayapal, the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on Monday. Axios reports that the pace of talks is âaccelerating.⦠[T]his progress means we can conclude negotiations soon.â
Meanwhile, Senators Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin are âtalking,â Politico reports. Non-shocker of a quote from New Mexico Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich: âTheyâve never been particularly close, and they have very different approaches.â Well, never hurts to talk.
Interesting story out of what we East Coast snobs call the other Washington. Nick Rolovich, the head coach of the Washington State University football team, got canned Monday because he refused to get vaxxed, putting him in violation of Democratic Governor Jay Insleeâs (remember him?) statewide vaccine mandate for state employees. Rolovich sought a religious exemption, but the university president and athletic director werenât buying. The Cougars are 4â3 this year. The Washington Post reports that Rolovich has never explained his vaccine position publicly. Itâs a bold throwdown by Wazzou brass, given that Rolovich, at $3.2 million, is the stateâs highest-paid public employee (higher than the U-Dub football coach, really?? Apparently so, by $100,000).Â
The train derailment on the Washington Metro last week involved a type of car that represents 60 percent of the systemâs fleet. WMATA has pulled all those trains out of service, at least through this week. The results are ⦠predictably grim. Metro has been underfunded for years, though it did get $193 million from the American Rescue Plan (the Covid relief bill). Thereâs about $150 million more for the system in the pending infrastructure bill.Â
At NewRepublic.com today, Alex Shephard takes a whack at the conventional wisdom that says if Terry McAuliffe loses the Virginia governorâs race, the Democrats are doomed in the midterms. Casey Michel takes a really interesting deep dive into the Pandora Papers, spotlighting the American law firms that help global kleptocrats do the nasty things they do. And Raina Lipsitz has a fascinating piece on why you ought to care about the Erie County, New York, sheriffâs race. Read it. Youâll see.
Onward, Michael Tomasky, editor
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