Senate
November 7, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Democrats think they are “winning” the shutdown. As long as they continue to think that, it will continue, into 2026, perhaps into 2029. Yesterday’s offer from Senate leader John Thune (R-SD) has been rejected. From The Hill newspaper, Deal to reopen government falters over Democrats’ distrust of Trump. A “deal” can’t “falter” if there never was a deal. Distrust of Trump? The Hill reports, Democratic support for a potential deal
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November 6, 2025 — Bill Glahn
From The Hill newspaper, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is set to hold a vote Friday with an eye toward ending the government shutdown. The GOP leader told lawmakers over a conference lunch that he will hold another vote on the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) that has failed to advance 14 times so far. This time, however, Thune is putting it on the floor with an eye toward amending
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November 4, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Today’s headline round up from The Hill newspaper, One: Democrats divided over cutting deal to end shutdown. Two: Thune ‘optimistic’ shutdown may end this week, eyes spending bill through January. Three: Lawmakers hopeful Election Day will be turning point in the shutdown fight. Senate Democrats have backed themselves into a corner in this shutdown business and are desperately seeking some exogenous event (deus ex machina) to justify a change of course.
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November 2, 2025 — John Hinderaker
President Trump has called on Senate Republicans to end the Schumer Shutdown by doing away with the filibuster: And again: Trump is probably right that the Democrats will abolish the filibuster the next opportunity they get. But is it a good idea for Republicans to do away with it now? Last week, before Trump weighed in, I talked to a Washington insider about this means of ending the shutdown. He
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October 31, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution reads: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law;” Senate Democrats have voted 13 times, so far, to deny the appropriation to fund the bulk of the U.S. government. Under the Senate’s current set of rules, a supermajority of the Senate (60 votes out of 100) are needed to pass the bill
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October 30, 2025 — Bill Glahn
The race is on for a face-saving solution. From The Hill newspaper, Senate GOP, Democrats looking for ‘off-ramp’ to end shutdown next week. Details, Senate Republicans and Democrats are trying to hammer out a proposal to end the 30-day government shutdown as soon as next week, as some centrist Democrats argue behind the scenes that their party has successfully highlighted rising health care costs and it’s time to end the
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October 30, 2025 — Scott Johnson
“Thumos” means “spiritedness” or “anger” and the like in ancient Greek. It’s a key word in the classic Greek texts from Homer on. Senate Majority Leader John Thune doesn’t usually put his “thumos” on display. He usually maintains an even keel. In the clip below Senator Thune addressed his Democrat colleague Ben Ray Luján on the imminent effects of the Schumer Shutdown (previewed here by John). Senator Thune himself tweeted
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October 24, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Last evening, the U.S. Senate adjourned until Monday, guaranteeing that the federal government “shutdown” will extend for a full four weeks. Before they left town, Senators confirmed the fifth federal judge this month, with two more teed up for Monday evening when they return. For his part, Pres. Trump will be off to Asia this weekend. The Hill newspaper reports, President Trump on Friday will travel to Asia for his
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October 7, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Attorney General Pam Bondi testified today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. There were plenty of fireworks. Democratic senators used the occasion to air their anti-Trump grievances, and occasionally asked questions. Bondi gave no quarter. She attacked the senators as vigorously as they went after her, if not more so. And by no means did she confine herself to the questions asked or topics raised by the Democrats. But Republicans weren’t
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October 7, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as Special Counsel to do his share of the Biden administration’s dirty work in the January 6 and Mar-a-Lago documents cases. The appointment document is posted online on Smith’s page in the Department of Justice online archives here. Thanks to the relentless digging of Senator Chuck Grassley, yesterday it was revealed that the FBI spied on eight GOP senators during its sweeping
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September 4, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Our Constitution assumes a certain level of good faith on the part of people who participate in public life. It is not a system that can preside over a state of civil war. So throughout our history, there have been unwritten norms of conduct that grow out of a simple imperative: if we want to have a functioning democracy, a certain degree of cooperation between the parties is mandatory. But
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July 1, 2025 — John Hinderaker
J D Vance cast the 51st vote this morning, as the administration’s big beautiful reconciliation bill eked through the Senate. Three Republican senators–Thom Tillis, Susan Collins and Rand Paul–joined all Democrats in voting against the bill. I don’t think they would have done so, if their votes had been needed for passage. The bill absolutely has to pass, since if it doesn’t, the biggest tax increase in American history will
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June 18, 2025 — John Hinderaker
In case you are wondering, the Big Beautiful Bill is working its way through the Senate. I assume that it will pass, in some version, because if it doesn’t we will see the biggest tax increase in American history on January 1, and no Republican will vote for that. Meanwhile, how does the Senate version of the bill compare with the House version? Here are some highlights, per Stephen Moore
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June 17, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Lest we forget, National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar recounts the ordeal of Alex Padilla in Blehar’s weekly Carnival of Fools column. He has filed this week’s column under the heading “Wail of the Israel haters.” In the second part of his column he turns to “Alex Padilla, Forgotten Man” (links omitted): * * * * * In tales of the overtaken-by-events, last Thursday California Senator Alex Padilla (D. — like you
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May 21, 2025 — John Hinderaker
To be fair, Senator Chris Van Hollen is more a pussycat than a lion. But when Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, Van Hollen used his allotted seven minutes to deliver a screed against the Secretary and the Trump administration, without asking a question. Rubio asked the chairman for an opportunity to respond, which he was given. Van Hollen didn’t like the fact
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April 2, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Pollster Frank Luntz says that “political history” may have been changed this week by the marathon speech delivered on the Senate floor by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey). I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong before. But my guess is that the whole episode will be forgotten by next week until a similar stunt is attempted, somewhere. I fully confess to not having seen a single second of the
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March 1, 2025 — Scott Johnson
This is the introduction to Barton Swaim’s profile of Senator John Fetterman in today’s Wall Street Journal: Walking into Sen. John Fetterman’s reception office in the Russell Senate Office Building, I first notice the walls. They are covered with 8½-by-11 images of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Atop each is a red banner reading KIDNAPPED. On one wall are images of those who remain in captivity;
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