Democrats hit Republicans with do-nothing charges after abrupt House adjournment

Last week, the House of Representatives appeared to be suffering from nervous seat syndrome. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had already cancelled the final two weeks of the pre-midterm election session. Then, late Wednesday, he abruptly canceled Thursday’s final day of legislative business, sending members home early to campaign. The Senate opted to remain in session through next week. Both chambers will return the second week in November.

The easy explanation for the House’s early exit is that with polls showing Republicans possibly losing House control in November, they need all the time they can get to rally their supporters to turn out at the polls. Representatives may have fewer accomplishments to justify their return to power, but that would not likely be remedied by two more frantic weeks of procedural wrangling.

It’s difficult to gin-up campaign issues to run on when polling shows that the party now controlling both branches is under water on most issues: from affordability and the Iran war, to corruption and AI. The fallback position seems to be, when in doubt, punt and run for home, i.e., your House seat.

The only major bill the House dealt with last week was on Wednesday when it agreed to the Senate amendments to the House-passed, Lindsey O. Graham Russian and Iran Sanctions Act, by a 262-159 vote. The president signed it into law on Friday.

On Tuesday, Sept. 15, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) called up another of his joint resolutions to impeach President Donald Trump. Green has been a very vocal critic of the president, having........

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