Eye on Congress:The Big Story

Senate Republicans cancelled the August recess, citing historic obstruction by Democrats. But when you crunch the numbers, the delay tactics are far from historic, according to CQ Senate Managing Editor Ed Pesce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Netflix documentary series “Bobby Kennedy for President” marks the upcoming 50th anniversary of the late senator and presidential candidate’s assassination in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. The four-part series by documentarian Dawn Porter shows the evolution of Kennedy from campaign manager, attorney general, senator and presidential candidate, and outlines the evolution of his political beliefs from rough-and-tumble family fixer and anti-communist to civil rights icon.  Porter discussed the series recently with the Political Theater podcast, including her own motivations for treading into a story many Americans may feel they know, and the result is a cinematic journey that feels fresh while also very much reflecting its own heady times.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Donald Trump is a television fan and a polarizing figure in American culture. Two critically acclaimed television shows that just wrapped up their seasons reflect the political, cultural and economic anxieties of the era of Trump, CQ Staff Writer and cultural observer Clyde McGrady tells Jason Dick in this week’s Political Theater podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Women were big winners in Tuesday's primaries as they are poised to change the midterm dynamics in states like Nebraska and Pennsylvania, explains Roll Call senior political reporter Bridget Bowman.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

West Virginia Republicans lined up for the right to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III, and after a knock-down, drag-out fight, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey emerged as the victor. Roll Call Senior Political Reporter Simone Pathe talks about her recent trip to the Mountain State and what it told her about the midterm fight ahead.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a bona fide pop icon, perhaps strange territory for an 85-year-old, diminutive, reserved constitutional scholar. In the latest Political Theater podcast, filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen speak about their documentary, “RBG,” including what it was like to be in the same theater when Ginsburg saw their movie at the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary opens in theaters on May 4. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Republican Debbie Lesko won a close House race in an Arizona district that is usually very friendly to her party. As the midterm election season continues to heat up, Political Theater looks at the takeaways from this duel in the desert with Roll Call Elections Analyst Nathan Gonzales and Senior Political Reporter Bridget Bowman.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Members of Congress are the players we see on stage, but the production that is politics would go nowhere without the backstage people making up the staff — the chaplains, sergeants-at-arms, chiefs of staff and more who make sure the show goes on. Ed Pesce, the editor of CQ Senate and a former congressional staffer himself, talks about those dynamics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker Paul D. Ryan's announcement that he will not seek re-election once he finishes out his term has set off a scramble on several fronts including who will bring in the boatloads of cash that he raised for the GOP. CQ lobbying reporter Kate Ackley and Inside Elections' Nathan Gonzales explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Donald Trump's desire to have the National Guard help patrol the Southern border is not all that different from actions taken by former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, but that does not mean there are not areas of concern about the action, says CQ's national security editor Megan Scully.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wondering what former members of Congress do after leaving Capitol Hill? Perhaps that's why the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress was formed, to keep tabs.  Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski attended the Association's recent Statesmanship Awards Dinner, where current and former members exchanged some fairly interesting ideas about Congress, and even gossiped a bit about the people who sleep in their offices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The opioid epidemic is a massive public health crisis that Washington is only now starting to grasp. Reid Wilson, national correspondent for the Hill, has a new book about the last time the U.S. government got things right in facing a deadly challenge, and it was only a few years ago.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The special election result in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District has rocked the political world on its heels, with Democrat Conor Lamb’s success in the heavily Republican region setting off a fresh round of speculation about the 2018 midterms.  Roll Call Senior Political Reporter Bridget Bowman, who reported from the area recently, was at the Capitol gauging reaction from members of Congress after the latest round of political jousting.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In light of Tuesday's 74th Annual Congressional Dinner, Political Theater talks to Washington Post humor columnist Alexandra Petri about when satire works and when it doesn't. Warning: we have politicians telling jokes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

HULU’s new mini-series “The Looming Tower” traces the rising threat of Al Qaeda in the runup to the 9/11 attacks and is adapted from Lawrence Wright’s Pulitzer Prize winning book. For today’s audience, the series shows eerie parallels to conflicts within our government that are dominating our politics today. Actor Jeff Daniels portrays plays FBI Special Agent in Charge John O'Neill, a counterterrorism specialist who sounds the alarm about the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and who was killed at the World Trade Center in the 9/11 attacks.  “‘Looming Tower’ screams that we should be doing everything we can to be working together in a bipartisan effort to protect the people of this country,” he said.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Among the stars at next month's Oscars will be Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader, one of the subjects of the Academy Award nominated Netflix documentary "Heroin(e)". She's a first responder on the front lines of the opioid crisis, and she's taken her message on the issue not just to the screen, but also to Capitol Hill.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roll Call Political analyst Stu Rothenberg explains why GOP gains in a generic ballot represent just a part of the overall political picture and political reporter Bridget Bowman previews Arizona's upcoming special election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Texas kicks off primary season in less than a month, and will shape midterm contests that could help determine majorities in the House and the Senate. Roll Call Senior Political Writer Bridget Bowman and Jason Dick run down everything from the marquee Senate race to the House campaigns that lawmakers will definitely be breaking a sweat over.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Terris, national political reporter at The Washington Post, discusses with Roll Call how President Trump used his State of the Union to build congressional coalitions, and whether the speech will help or hurt the legislative agenda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roll Call political reporters Simone Pathé and Bridget Bowman discuss the Senate Democrats up for re-elections in the 2018 midterms in states won by Donald Trump and how that dynamic played in the recent government shutdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices