Rachel Maddow just nailed it

| 9:42 pm EST February 3, 2021
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As Palmer Report often likes to point out, the Senate is the kind of deliberative body that’s designed to move at the speed of mud on a good day. That’s why Mitch McConnell and the Republicans were able to keep the Senate largely hovering in neutral for the first month of the new session, before the new operating agreement finally became official tonight, fully handing the Senate Democrats the reins.

As Rachel Maddow pointed out tonight, Senate Republicans have basically stolen a month from Senate Democrats, who now only get to spend 23 instead of 24 months advancing their agenda. It’s also delayed the Democrats’ overwhelmingly popular agenda by a month at a crucial time when the American people are starving and dying.

There was nothing Senate Democrats could have done to make the past month go any better for them; in fact Chuck Schumer was quite savvy when it came to forcing McConnell to cave when he did. But here’s the thing.

As Maddow said on air tonight, the Senate Democrats were already looking to push full speed ahead on their agenda – and now they have the perfect excuse to go guns blazing with it. After all, they simply have to point out to the American public that Senate Republicans stole a month of governance from them.