Charles P. Pierce writing at Esquire regularly outshines the rest of the punditocracy. Today he has two pieces well worth reading; the one on Biden is especially eloquent while the one on Pelosi is damned encouraging. It’s well worth subscribing to get past the paywall for stuff like this.
With Can Joe Biden Save America’s Soul? Pierce relates just how incredible Biden has been to date:
...And although El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago and his parade of brain-wormed sycophants continue to dominate headlines, Biden has doggedly persevered in his governance as he did in his campaign. The result is a tally of accomplishments as ambitious as they are historic.
Since taking the oath of office in January 2021, Biden has pulled American troops out of Afghanistan and signed both the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, which together addressed the country’s screaming need for infrastructure improvement and made the most serious bid to confront the climate crisis ever attempted at the federal level. He got a gun law passed, and a law to relieve the suffering of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq and elsewhere. He put his money where his mouth was in Ukraine. He put Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court; has had more federal judges confirmed, as of August, than any president to that point in his tenure since JFK; and has managed both the Covid pandemic and the aftermath of the Trump administration—twin plagues that fed off each other.
He’s done all this FDR-LBJ legerdemain with a razor-thin majority in the House and a de facto stalemate in the Senate. He’s done it in the teeth of a radicalized Republican party still in thrall to a nihilistic narcissist and its frenzied media ecosystem—and with an approval rating that, month to month, struggles to stay in the low 40s. This is, politically, nothing short of miraculous. A very big part of why is that Biden understands that he’s reached the Davy Crockett, “make sure you’re right and go ahead” portion of his political career.”
The mainstream media doesn’t have time for this — they're too busy putting out negative narratives coming from the right to talk about what Biden has actually done. But for all the accomplishments Pierce cites, he also puts his finger on what he thinks is the key challenge for Biden.
...However frustrated he may be by the pace of the proceedings, Biden has done an admirable job of giving Garland a free hand, staying out of the investigations into his predecessor’s assorted misdeeds. It is essential to his strategy of unwinding the chaotic politicization of the DOJ under Bill Barr. Without some sort of credible legal resolution to these matters, Biden will stand arraigned for having left unfulfilled his most significant campaign promise: to win what he called—rightly—the “battle for the soul of America.” This is not a battle that can end in a tie, nor one that can end in a half-a-loaf negotiated settlement. It’s a battle that must be won decisively, and in the full light of day. It’s a battle that gives life to everything else he’s trying to do.
Victory in this battle means more than all the shiny new bridges in the world.
Pierce also looks at what’s coming up now that Congress will be going into a lame duck session with this take:
Before we get to the lovely results of the tail end of the midterm elections that descended upon a grateful nation over the weekend, let’s take a look at a good idea. Not merely a good idea, but a really good idea. Like a penicillin-level really good idea. Like a 'trade Pete Best for Ringo Starr' really good idea. Like a Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, Mark Kelly, John Fetterman really, really good idea.
To the surprise of essentially nobody, the idea comes from Speaker Nancy Pelosi. From Reuters:
Democrats in the U.S. Congress aim to pass bills protecting same-sex marriage, clarifying lawmakers' role in certifying presidential elections and raising the nation's debt ceiling when they return from the campaign trail on Monday[…]House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen both signaled that addressing the nations' looming debt ceiling would be a priority during the session.
Some Republicans have threatened to use the next hike in the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, expected in the first quarter of 2023, as leverage to force concessions from Biden. Yellen in a Saturday interview with Reuters warned that a failure to act would pose a "huge threat" to America's credit rating and the functioning of financial markets. Pelosi, who would lose her position as speaker if Republicans win a majority in the House, told ABC News on Sunday that the best way to address the debt ceiling was "to do it now.”
Pierce is fully on board with making this a duck no one will accuse of being lame:
You have dozens of clichés pushing you on: You have the whip hand, the wind at your back, and God is holding you in the palm of his hand, and you will have a Senate majority a half-hour before the devil knows you’re in the majority again. There is much sunshine in which to make very much hay. (I might be running out, now that I think about it.)
But the debt ceiling thing comes first. Do everything you can to defuse this particular piece of ordnance. Use that act to demonstrate that the era of negotiating with political hostage-takers is over. Use it to drape bright red neon over last Tuesday’s results. Use it to demonstrate to Kevin McCarthy (or whoever) that any tiny majority in the House he may or may not eke out is next to useless, except for what is shaping up to be a very entertaining cannibal feast at the top of the Republican caucus.
Forward momentum — use it or lose it. Assuming you can get past the Esquire pay wall, read both pieces — they’re keepers.