3 things Democrats should do during the lame duck session

Ignore the predictable howls from the right. It's time Democrats started playing to win.

Harry Reid, President Obama
(Image credit: (CC BY: The White House/Pete Souza))

The 2014 midterms are over, but due to a bizarre hitch in the American constitutional system, the old Congress still gets one more chance to make laws before the newly elected one takes office in January. It's called the lame duck session, and it began yesterday.

House Democrats will almost certainly have nothing to do. But the rest of the party should take advantage of this time to undertake a few special actions. Let me go through them in turn, then explain why they're justified.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.