It's infrastructure week again, down at the Republicans' Last Chance Saloon. One week from today is Memorial Day, which is the deadline President Joe Biden set to see some sort of substantial progress on a bipartisan infrastructure bill in Congress. If such progress is not achieved by the time of the summer-opening picnics, then Democrats will begin moving on their own to use the Senate's budget reconciliation provision to pass both of the big Biden proposals (the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan). The clock is ticking, in other words, with one week to go.

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Republicans, these days, just seem rather lost. They used to be so good at coming up with semi-cohesive talking points to use against Democrats, and they have always admirably been able to all sing from this same songbook every Sunday morning (for the political chatfest shows on television). But these days, all the issues they choose to highlight are all so incredibly short-term that the problem usually disappears before their politicization of the issue really even has a chance to take hold.

Case in point: Republicans' heavy lean on school reopenings. They've been so convinced this is going to be a big winning issue for them, they rode it all the way to getting a recall election called for California's governor (Gavin Newsom). But by the time Californians vote on it (later October or early November of this year), everyone will already be back in school again.

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Bipartisanship has been achieved! You would think that this news would make Republicans happy, since they've been whining so incessantly about President Joe Biden somehow not being sufficiently interested in bipartisanship in Congress, but you would (of course) be wrong about that. Instead of celebrating the milestone, Senate Republicans from their leadership on down are now desperately trying to create more partisanship, to kill the bill. There's an object lesson here, for people like Joe Manchin, but it remains to be seen whether this lesson will be taken to heart or not.

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Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan just announced he will not be running for re-election next year, and instead will be devoting his time and energy to a new movement to reform the Republican Party. He calls this effort "GOP 2.0." His chances of success appear to be somewhere between "slim" and "non-existent." But you have to at least applaud the guy for trying.

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The more I see of President Joe Biden, the more I am reminded of Ronald Reagan. Not in substance, mind you (their policies could hardly be more opposed), but rather in style. Joe Biden is just likeable, no matter what you think of his agenda. He's beyond avuncular, he's downright grandfatherly. Just like Reagan was. Where Reagan had: "There you go again," Biden has instead: "C'mon, man." Both express exactly the same (and extremely rare) political quality -- the ability to defuse a story completely, right before reframing it in a way that most average non-political Americans would agree with (or at least relate to), even if it drives the pundits bonkers. You could call this inherent skill the ability to project being a "commonsense politician," I suppose.

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The Republican Party has officially divorced itself from reality. They have, quite simply, moved their headquarters to Cloud Cuckoo Land. Any among their ranks who do not swear fealty to the fantastic lies they now believe must be either shunned or expelled. That is the state of one of the two major American political parties, in the twenty-first century.

Normally, such a development would be a reason for glee among the other political party, but this is not merely a matter of Republicans believing that the world is flat, the moon is made of green cheese, or tax cuts always pay for themselves -- no, this is no mere pedestrian fantasyland they have now taken up residence within. This is far more dangerous.

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We are in the midst of a bit of Washington Kabuki theater, which is underway with a very specific audience in mind: Senator Joe Manchin. The entire exercise is designed to prove to him that Republicans are fundamentally incapable of compromise and are not negotiating in good faith with President Joe Biden and the Democrats on anything, including things that used to be fairly universally-supported, such as infrastructure. So I do hope Senator Manchin is paying attention.

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In more ways than one, Liz Cheney is her father's daughter. Coming from a liberal, however, that's not exactly a compliment. Both Cheneys are unapologetic warmongers, and both are extremely cunning denizens of Washington. Both stand for principles I personally abhor, and I doubt there's a single political issue or stance on which I would ever agree with either one of them. Having said all of that, though, Cheney is to be praised for going down swinging. She refuses to back down, she refuses to stay quiet, and she will tell anyone who will listen that what Donald Trump and his spineless enablers are doing is nothing short of an attack on both American democracy itself and the United States Constitution.

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This could be the week when we all learn whether bipartisanship is an achievable goal or whether it is merely a windmill not even worth tilting at any more. President Joe Biden is sitting down not only with all four congressional leaders (Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, Chuck Schumer, and Mitch McConnell), but also with a delegation from the Senate Republicans who say they are making an honest attempt to come to a compromise on an infrastructure bill. Democrats have already signalled that this won't be an endless waiting game -- if nothing appears by Memorial Day, they are going to use budget reconciliation to pass their bills in the Senate with a simple majority vote, which will leave Republicans without any say over the final bill at all (which is exactly what happened on Biden's first major legislative achievement, the American Rescue Plan). So they've got roughly three weeks before their bipartisan dream bill turns back into a pumpkin.

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Sometimes the headlines just write themselves, folks. House Republicans are about to joyfully embrace the "cancel culture" they routinely decry, by forcing Representative Liz Cheney out of her leadership position. Cheney keeps saying things they don't like (such as the incontrovertible fact that the 2020 election was safe and secure and that Donald Trump lost, for instance), so they are going to try to squelch the power of her voice by kicking her out. The Republican journey from selling themselves as the "party of personal responsibility" to the party of endless victimhood is now complete.

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