Tuesday open thread: Things will be escalating quickly today
We'll be watching one major today. Of course, it's the Virginia gubernatorial election. The political media is salivating at the possibility of a Republican victory, which of course means that Trumpism is resurgent and the great American People wish to be under the heavy hand of a senile authoritarian. And if (as I believe likely) Democrat Terry McAuliffe pulls off the victory, then this will be forgotten. None of the Serious Political Journalists™ will remember that they spent the past month painting the Virginia election as a referendum on President Joe Biden. They will move on to the next "this will define Democratic fortunes heading into 2022" shiny object. The Narrative™ can never fail, only be failed. (On an ancillary note, New Jersey is also holding a gubernatorial contest, and the Democrat is heading to a convincing victory. No Democrat has been reelected governor of New Jersey while a fellow Democrat sits in the Oval Office. But that, of course, tells us nothing about Democratic fortunes heading into 2022, because reasons.)
Originally, the House was going to vote on BIF and BBB today. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia made mouth noises yesterday. Amazingly, the progressives in the House, led by Representative Pramila Jayapal, didn't take the bait. However, it's been announced that the Rules Committee will meet tomorrow, as the bill is still being hammered out between the various stakeholders. I'm in no ways worried, mostly because me worrying wouldn't change the outcome one way or the other. I do not possess psionic powers. None of us do.
Also tomorrow, we have Majority Leader Chuck Schumer teeing up another vote for Manchin's voting rights bill. Will another inability to invoke cloture finally convince the West Virginian to make a carve out of filibuster rules for his own bill? We shall see.
Settle in, kids. The next couple of days should be chockfull of fun.