Normally when a party is facing a crisis on Capitol Hill, emotions are high. People get angry at one another. The quotes get spicy, and the intrigue builds. Look no further than the past 18 months among House Republicans. That’s not happening among congressional Democrats this week, though. Instead, they’re just sad.
A full day of internal meetings in Washington didn’t produce a hallelujah moment with Democrats uniting in confidence that Joe Biden could actually win in November. But there wasn’t the consensus needed to try to urge him to drop out of the race, either. As Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee said when asked if Democrats were on the same page, “We’re not even on the same book.”
Congress returned to work this week, the first time it has been in session since the June 27 debate in which Biden imperiled his candidacy. Expectations had been rising that the veritable dam would break and the private concerns over Biden’s candidacy would spill out publicly, perhaps to the point where leaders would march to the White House and tell Biden to drop out. On Tuesday, House Democrats held a rare meeting at the Democratic National Committee headquarters where they put their cell phones in a cubby lest any members........