I Welcome Any Sign From Congress That It Is a Coequal to Our Renegade President

We have lived so long amid mirages of hope that this political era will pass that I can't trust a glimmer of it. However, there are signs that the Republicans are becoming more unstrung by the day. There are loud murmurs that discomfort is spreading among their congressional majorities regarding the Epstein stonewall. And Republican members are beginning to lose their shit publicly. In the latest episode, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler faces off with Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a hallway to demand—demand!—that Jeffries sign onto the Republican proposal for ending the government shutdown. "Keep your mouth shut," Jeffries suggests at one point.

Outside Mike Johnson’s office, the Democrats decided to play the hallway ambush game. Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly dropped in on Speaker Moses regarding his delay in seating newly elected Rep. Adelita Grijalva. Their fellow Arizonan would ostensibly be the deciding vote in favor of a discharge petition that would force the release of Epstein documents, which the Speaker pretty plainly would like to keep buried.

Personally, I prefer this kind of thing over the phony Beltway camaraderie that deadens democratic debate or the backroom forms of congressional negotiation. At this point, any public signs from the Congress that it recognizes itself as a coequal institution of government to a renegade Executive Branch are more than welcome. Jeffries' kill-shot question at Lawler is a question not enough people have asked: "Did your boss, Donald Trump, give you permission?"