Don't do what Obama failed to do against Mitch McConnell regarding Merrick Garland!

who had barely gotten into office when he passed away. Eventually Abbott scheduled the special election for that seat 10 months later, on Nov. 4, 2025. And of course the state has redistricted so who knows what the makeup of that district will be in the future.

The house cannot conduct any business until she is sworn in, so if Johnson is stalling to block a vote on the Epstein files, he will soon have to decide if it is worth extending the shutdown to avoid a vote on the files.

to pass a C.R., he can delay and stay in recess however long he wants (if not considering attempting to pass a variant of that bill). They don't have to "act" unless some C.R. compromise makes it out of the Senate and is sent to the House to consider (and they don't even have to do anything with that either).

It would require a "court of public opinion" to move his lazy Louisiana ass.

So the shutdown continues.

To end the shutdown, they will have to take another vote on a new bill, at which time a point of order can be raised to force the swearing in.

The shutdown can’t end without swearing her in.

But any money bill "originates" (in quotes) in the House (even if the Senate puts their version onto some House bill that they have that has passed and use their version as "an Amendment as a Substitute" ) and send it back to the House for consideration.

So the House did "do their (half of the) job".

And they can stay recessed ( "Subject to the call of the Chair" ), however long they want and do Pro-forma sessions like they are currently doing - although I expect "technically", she would need to be sworn in by the end of this 119th Congressional session (which would be before January 3rd, 2027, which starts the 120th session) and they get ZERO done for the year (unlikely but technically the case because there is no other "time limit" for swearing in during a session or staying in session).

Remember we are dealing with sadistic and craven loons. It's gonna take their own constituents (and big donors) to start putting on the pressure.

I don’t expect it to last past Thanksgiving.

but the last shutdown - fighting over money for a damn "border wall", lasted 35 days.

Unless Dems completely fold like a cheap suit, there will have to be another bill to pass both houses.

Let me see . . . the House took off the month of August. Plus they got the last 2 weeks of July off . . . so there could be no Epstein vote. And now they get 2 more weeks for the Republican/Epstein shutdown. That looks like a minimum of 2 months' taxpayer funded vacation time. And does not speak to their working vacations and extended holiday vacations. Wouldn't all Americans appreciate that much paid-vacation time?

... call Congress back to session per the law.

Wondering if this can lead to a general strike.

when he is the Trump-suck up protecting Trump from the Epstein files by denying AZ 7 their elected representation, and trying to drag this until past the open enrollment season for people to switch insurers if they want to? And just how much $$ do big insurance companies give the lil man to drag this out so customers can't switch in time?

This hypocrite sleazeball jackass makes me miss John Boenher, and I absolutely loathed that guy.