Dems Have a Good Day

Senator Cory Booker's speech was not technically a filibuster, but he did outlast segregationist Strom Thurmond. He had a lot to talk about with the Trump continuing to slash through government. Lots of people noticed and cheered him on, except for the usual "what does this matter" suspects. 

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna was in the news recently concerned about the JFK assassination. She's one of usual suspects in the Republican caucus. 

Luna, however, is also a young new mother (in her 30s). She supports proxy (remote) voting for mothers twelve weeks after birth. Luna suffered a difficult pregnancy and sounds a feminist message:

“You plan for one thing and it totally changes,” Ms. Luna said of her expectations of child birth in a recent interview from her office on Capitol Hill, while her 4-month-old son, Henry, napped in a rocker on her desk. (Ms. Luna says she has no child care and brings Henry to the Capitol almost every day she is in Washington, perching him on her desk through most of her meetings.)

“You’re being forced to choose between your career and having a family,” she said. “We’re in way too much of a tech age for that even to be acceptable. What happens if I have to vote on war?”

Yes, there is some selfishness here from someone who supports a party that doesn't care about the needs of mothers. As Prof. Liz Sepper noted on Bluesky:

The right scorns mothers. They hate us. They refuse to insure mothers, cut funding for infant and maternal health, work to defund public schools. No one mocks conservative women for their motherhood. But the right mocks liberals as ugly bad moms.

Rep. Luna, with the support of Democrats (including another new mother who had to go cross country with her new baby to vote against the continuing resolution) used a "discharge petition" to force a vote on her proxy message. Mike Johnson failed to block it, resulting in other votes this week being cancelled.

House Democrats allowed proxy voting during COVID. Republicans opposed it. Many said it was unconstitutional. Some, including Mitch McConnell, said it was wrong, but Congress has the power to make rules for its proceedings. The right answer if far from obvious. It's reasonable to have exceptions. 

On top it off, the Democratic candidate won in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. This means sanity is retained there. Republicans (by smaller margins than before) did win both Florida special elections. 

It still was a good day.