covering Congress for @nytimes. ex-New Yorker but trying to talk about it less. i'm the rhoda. 🏳️🌈.
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Joined April 2008
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sometimes it is important to step back and capture the zeitgeist
so i wrote about how Congress is behaving more and more like the Real Housewives
in case you missed it, GOP passed a veterans bill that Dems were whipping against, after no Dem on the floor asked for a recorded vote.
Takano's team, in email to Dem offices, says GOP asked Dems to review edits to bill. When Dems stepped away to do so, GOP called the bill up.
Thomas Massie will force another Epstein vote in his final weeks in office.
He just got a 218th signature on a discharge petition for the Epstein Files Transparency Act II.
Every Dem signed + Massie + 3 Republicans who won't be here next year: Norman, Mace and Fitzpatrick
Robert Garcia responds: "Congress has wide latitude to conduct investigations and oversight … We are a co-equal branch of government and will not be deterred by baseless threats"
🚨BREAKING NEWS in @PunchbowlNews AM
The White House counsel warned Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the incoming House Oversight Committee chair, in a new letter that some of the new majority’s investigations could cross the line into criminal behavior.
It’s an audacious claim that signals the White House is taking an aggressive — and hugely controversial — stance toward Democratic oversight in the 120th Congress.
The letter, penned by White House counsel Will Scharf, says that Congress can only investigate matters for a legislative purpose — a position that Republicans have relied on and stretched in recent years.
Further, the Scharf letter, sent to Garcia on Monday, says that Democratic investigations are designed to “harass and aggrandize rather than to advance any legitimate legislative end.”
punchbowl.news/wh-hill_lette…
Michael Gold retweeted
Breaking News: House Republicans elected Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio to be their leader, elevating a close ally of President Trump as they reel from a crushing defeat in the midterm elections. nyti.ms/4Ash6LJ
Michael Gold retweeted
News: Jim Jordan has won the election for minority leader.
Jordan will lead the Republican Conference next Congress
Cindy Hyde-Smith is back at the Capitol but not responding to questions from reporters.
“I don’t do hallway interviews.”
Jeffries says Schumer should be the next Senate majority leader.
JEFFRIES: “Yesz Chuck Schumer was the quarterback of a team effort led by Senate Democrats”
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and just like that, school is back in session
Rep. Don Bacon tells me he's "grappling" with whether to vote for impeaching Hegseth.
Bacon said he's read Massie's articles, and doesn't necessarily agree with his rationale, but has his own reasoning for why Hegseth could be impeached.
"The things I'm concerned about --- it's not in the impeachment articles," he said. "So, I'm wrestling with it."
Michael Gold retweeted
‘Failure Is Not an Option’: A Cautious Jeffries Vows a Bold Agenda nytimes.com/2026/11/08/us/po… via @NYTimes
they can never take our memories from us
but they can weaponize them to get us to go to Crush
For gay Washingtonians of a certain age, a night out in the 2000s and early 2010s often meant dancing at Cobalt, the legendary three-floor nightclub in Dupont Circle. Now, they'll get a chance to relive one more of those nights. @tristanespinoz
dc.citycast.fm/culture/cobal…
Michael Gold retweeted
Why Mamdani’s Push to Regulate Amazon Is Facing Resistance, with @SallyGold: nytimes.com/2026/11/06/nyreg…
Michael Gold retweeted
"‘I Have Seen the Enemy, and It Is Us’: Inside Team Trump’s Historic Collapse." @ShaneGoldmacher @jonathanvswan me nytimes.com/2026/11/04/us/po…
Just spoke with Ralph Norman talk about the election results in South Carolina. He said Trump should not have gotten involved in the race.
"I think they say pride goeth before the fall, and we’re seeing that all across the country," Norman said of Donald Trump.
Darline Graham is currently underperforming in areas that supported Ralph Norman in the runoff: Greenville, Spartanburg and Rock Hill
