Nobody in Washington Is Waiting for January.

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(Photo by OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Congress doesn’t change hands for another two months. Nobody in Washington seems inclined to wait. On Monday, White House counsel Will Scharf signed a letter to Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the Democrat about to take the gavel at the House Oversight Committee. It wasn’t a congratulations note. It was a warning, written in the calm, careful tone lawyers use when they want you to know they’ve already planned their next step. “The Administration will not be extorted and will not be cowed by unlawful process motivated by animus, pettiness, hatred, or any other unlawful motive to intimidate, penalize, or

Hegseth Gives No Ground. Trump Gives Him High Marks.

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Pete Hegseth walked to the Pentagon podium Tuesday morning for the first time since May. He didn’t come to explain himself. He came to settle something. The something was Thomas Massie. The Kentucky Republican lost his primary in May and has only a few months left in Congress. On Monday, he filed eight articles of impeachment against the Secretary of War. They center on the Iran war, which Massie says has gone on for more than 90 days without Congress signing off. They also reach into operations in Yemen, the Caribbean, and the January mission that brought in Nicolás Maduro.

A To-Do List Taped to the Refrigerator on the Way Out.

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The House Freedom Caucus did something useful Monday. It wrote things down. In a short document posted to social media, the caucus gave Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune a list. It wasn’t a manifesto or a threat. It was a list: Pass a funding bill through reconciliation. Put border security into law. Cap annual spending. Pass an energy bill. Ban members of Congress from trading stocks. It reads like the note you leave on the counter the week you move out of a house you loved. Here’s what still needs doing. Here’s what we said we’d

The Wave Came In. Stewart Wants the Old Guard Out.

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Democrats woke up Wednesday with both houses of Congress. Jon Stewart woke up with a list of demands. On his podcast, “The Weekly Show,” a listener asked whether Chuck Schumer should step aside now that Democrats have the Senate back. Stewart unloaded. “It is a bulls–t system and it needs to go,” he said. He meant the seniority ladder, the old arrangement that decides who leads, who waits, and who gets the microphone. Then he turned to the man himself. People were already handing Schumer credit for the wave, Stewart said, and that was rich. “Chuck Schumer fought tooth and

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