Political Theater

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 megaph...

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 slee...

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 Congr...

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 counterterro...

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/ad...

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

“The Final Year,” director Greg Barker’s documentary about a year in the life of the Obama administration’s foreign policy team, opens this Friday in theaters. For this week’s Political Theater podcast, the filmmaker and President Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes recount the story they tell through a human lens. “I wanted to give a sense that these complicated policy issues are,...

The Big Story Podcast is now Political Theater, in which we examine the spectacle of politics and how it fits, or doesn’t, into the nation’s culture.  Brandon Wetherbee, managing editor of the arts and cultural website Brightest Young Things, and co-author of “The Donald: How Trump Turned Presidential Politics into Pro Wrestling,” discusses the president’s approach to sports and how it relates to...

The biggest tax overhaul in three decades, a record roster of judicial confirmations, strikes at Obamacare and a regulatory rollback: White House correspondent John T. Bennett reviews how the president ended up winning much of what he campaigned for, but remains at record low approval ratings. Can he sell his agenda to midterm voters? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roll Call politics reporter Bridget Bowman, who is on the ground in Alabama, discusses how Democrat Doug Jones’ win is reverberating in the political sphere and how it could affect Congress in the coming year as lawmakers prepare for the 2018 midterm elections.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A week before Alabama's special election, Roll Call election analyst Nathan Gonzales  describes how he unearthed  an obscure political action committee supporting Roy Moore — just one more twist in a campaign where his alleged preying on teenage girls is the main issue, and has created a deep rift among his fellow Republicans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even though Democratic leaders snubbed President Donald Trump's invitation to the White House this week, it doesn't mean they don't want to negotiate with him. Roll Call's White House reporter John T. Bennett explains.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Allegations against current lawmakers, plus revelations of many taxpayer-funded settlements, are forcing leaders of both parties to confront the Hill’s backward culture before the election year, Roll Call columnist Patricia Murphy and reporter Simone Pathé explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roll Call columnist Walter Shapiro and Leadership Editor Jason Dick discuss the political morass Congress finds itself in with the debate over state and local tax deductions.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While the Democratic surge in the off-year voting gives the party reason to smile, the midterm election is a long way off. Roll Call reporters Simone Pathé and Bridget Bowman detail what the results in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere mean for the Democrats' quest to take back the House.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CQ lobbying reporter Kate Ackley explains how K Street and the business community are shaping the much-anticipated GOP tax overhaul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump's presidency has encouraged women to make campaign contributions in unprecedented numbers. Will more women run for Congress, too? CQ lobbying reporter Kate Ackley and Roll Call political reporter Simone Pathé explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do lawmakers read or understand the legislation they pass? They are about to pass a budget resolution they say isn't about the budget and passed legislation last year that defanged the DEA during an opioid epidemic. Roll Call Senior Senate Reporter Niels Lesniewski walks through what's going on.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices