| | |  | BY ELANA SCHOR | | With help from Renuka Rayasam CONGRESSIONAL LOVE LANGUAGES — The 1992 best-seller “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” looks today like a reductive exercise in gender stereotypes. But set the retrograde cliches aside: The book accurately conveyed a central truth that might help congressional Democrats as they stare down a brutal fall. Relationship breakdowns happen when you and your partner are communicating on your own terms, rather than trying to find common ground despite different frames of reference. And lately, Democratic centrists and progressives are not only talking past each other, they are also doing so in two separate languages. So while the binary Mars-Venus frame doesn’t work for gender, it might just teach the two camps inside President Joe Biden’s party how to live under the same roof without the stakes of its big tent flying away in a gust. | 
Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Mich.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) are pictured on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. | Joshua Roberts/Getty Images | The first lesson comes from Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). She told POLITICO on Friday that she has the votes within her 96-member bloc to stop the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill from clearing the House next week unless a multitrillion-dollar social spending bill also moves ahead. People “want to see us fight for them,” she added. This is Mars talk, more or less. Progressives are willing to risk short-term legislative failure if it connects to their deeply held policy principles — because they’re motivated by the fight itself. Centrists, on the other hand, are from Venus. Here’s how Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) addressed the social spending bill in a recent ABC News interview: “No one is talking about inflation or debt, and we should have that as part of the discussion. … I can’t understand why we can’t take time, deliberate on this, and work.” Centrists like Manchin would prefer long-term legislative stasis to a short-term failure if it gives them more time to socialize their goals. They’re motivated by the act of outreach, however performative it may look to their colleagues on the left. Can Democratic leaders please both fight-for-what’s-right liberals and talk-it-through centrists? Possibly, but it would require a conversation about the $550 billion infrastructure bill that bridges this Mars-Venus divide. | 
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) leaves a hearing on Capitol Hill. | Alex Wong/Getty Images | Each wing would have to accept the other’s needs for the whole party to get what it wants. And based on Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s recent ultimatum to Biden about walking away from the social spending talks if the House infrastructure vote fails as soon as next week, the chances of that acceptance aren’t looking good. The second lesson comes from Reps. Cori Bush (R-Mo.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and other progressives who, after the Senate parliamentarian ruled against including immigration reform in the social spending bill, urged their party to push past the rules referee. Top Democrats “can and should ignore” the parliamentarian, Omar tweeted. “The parliamentarian must be overruled,” Bush tweeted. This isn’t going to happen, but they’re illustrating a classic element of progressive communication: Always try to move the range of acceptable outcomes. Think of this as the progressive version of what original Mars/Venus author John Gray described as “the cave” that Mars denizens retreat to when they’re under pressure. A trip to the cave doesn’t necessarily accomplish the goals of Mars natives, but it lets them blow off steam that later helps them communicate better. To that end, the Democrats’ left flank is going to naturally want to clamor for bigger and bolder resistance after a defeat like the one they got dealt on immigration. That venting is valuable and is likely to be followed by a come-together moment for the party — when the time is right. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at eschor@politico.com and on Twitter at @eschor.
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A message from Altria: Moving beyond smoking. Altria’s companies are leading the way in moving adult smokers away from cigarettes – by taking action to transition millions toward less harmful choices. We are investing in a diverse mix of businesses to broaden options beyond traditional, combustible cigarettes. See how we’re moving. | | | | | — Dems rope debt to government funding, lassoing GOP into clash: Congressional Democrats are proposing lifting the debt ceiling through the 2022 midterm elections as part of their plans to fund the government into December, leaders said this afternoon. But that measure, which is set for a House vote this week, faces an uncertain future as Senate Republicans remain unwilling to help Democrats neutralize the looming crisis over the nation’s debt limit when their party controls Congress and the White House. — Biden’s broad booster plan driven partly by supply concerns: Top advisers to Biden pushed for his administration to announce a broad booster rollout for September in part because of fears that the U.S. could run short of doses needed to offer the shots to its entire population if vaccines’ protection decreased suddenly, according to two senior officials with knowledge of the matter. The internal campaign coincided with pleas from international leaders for the U.S. to do more to help lower-and middle-income countries secure initial doses. — Pfizer, BioNTech say Covid-19 shot for kids is safe and provokes strong immune response: The immune response seen in the 5- to 11-year olds enrolled in the late-stage clinical trial was comparable to that seen in teens and young adults, even though the children’s dosage was one-third the amount used in people 12 and over. The companies have not released detailed data from the study, nor have they published the findings in a peer-reviewed journal. — Supreme Court sets Dec. 1 for arguments in challenge to Roe v. Wade: The Supreme Court today scheduled Dec. 1 arguments on Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Mississippi’s ban has been blocked by lower courts because it directly violates Roe’s protections for pre-viability abortions. — Texas doctor sued after saying he defied state’s new abortion law: A San Antonio doctor who said he performed an abortion in defiance of a new Texas law has been sued by two people seeking to test the legality of the state’s near-total ban on the procedure.
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| — White House: Possible use of whips on Haitian migrants is ‘horrific’: White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed dismay today at images that appeared to show Border Patrol agents using whips on migrants seeking asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border. Psaki said that administration officials were aware of the situation and that “it’s horrible to watch.” — U.S. to lift air travel restrictions for fully vaccinated foreigners: The Biden administration is targeting early November for foreign travel to resume for the first time in more than a year. The head of the White House’s Covid-19 Response Team, Jeff Zients, announced today that foreign nationals must show proof of vaccination and proof of a negative Covid-19 test taken three days prior to boarding an airplane. — Attorney for Trump CFO hints at more indictments: A lawyer for Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg said today that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance may bring charges against more people as part of the probe into the former president’s company. Weisselberg’s attorney, Bryan Skarlatos, did not say which people might face charges or whether he thinks former President Donald Trump could be among them.
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| | TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: Do you listen to POLITICO podcasts? We want to hear from you! Tell us what you like, what you could do without, and what you want to see in the future from the POLITICO Audio team! Your responses will help us improve our offerings and tailor our podcast content to better fit your needs. Find the survey here. | | | | | | | PUTIN’S PARTY WINS BIG IN DISPUTED ELECTION — Russia’s ruling party on Sunday secured a landslide win in a vote that has been dubbed the most repressive since Soviet times. With some 85 percent of ballots counted as of early today, United Russia — which backs Russian President Vladimir Putin — had won 50 percent of the vote, appearing to lose some seats in parliament but paving the way for it to retain its majority. Three days of voting — an extended period the authorities claim is meant to prevent a spread of the coronavirus, but critics argue facilitates vote-rigging — brought with it a litany of violations. In Moscow, results from electronic voting had still not been made public after 12 hours, a delay that critics decried as a sign of tampering. And as in previous elections, footage shared on social media showed brazen ballot stuffing and harassment of observers. At least one new tactic also surfaced — the use of pens with disappearing ink, presumably in order to “correct” ballots after they had been cast. LIGHTNING CRASHES — The European Commission is set to present a legislative proposal on Thursday to force manufacturers to use a common charger for electronic devices, according to a Commission official closely involved in the file. The proposal will require all manufacturers to harmonize the charging points on devices — using a USB-C charging point — and to make their software protocol for fast charging interoperable between brands and devices. The main target of the new legislation is U.S. tech giant Apple, which has pushed back against EU attempts to standardize chargers through binding requirements, arguing that it will hamper innovation.
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| | JOIN THURSDAY FOR A WOMEN RULE CONVERSATION ON ENDING SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY: Sexual assault in the military has been an issue for years, and political leaders are taking steps to address it. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) proposed bipartisan legislation to overhaul military sexual assault policies, but still face opposition. Join Women Rule for a virtual interview featuring Sens. Ernst and Gillibrand, who will discuss their legislative push and what it will take to end sexual assault and sexual harassment in the military. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | CALL MY AGENTS — Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s “Peril,” which will be published Tuesday, is the last of this summer’s flood of books about the end of the Trump presidency. Among the others: Michael Wolff’s “Landslide,” Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker’s “I Alone Can Fix It,” and Michael Bender’s “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost.” Washington, D.C., book agent Rafe Sagalyn called the Woodward/Costa book “a market test” of whether there is still an appetite for Trump era books. “The Trump-related book has been a staple for a few years, but there are signs of fatigue, esp after the 3 bestsellers from last month,” Sagalyn wrote in an email to Nightly’s Renuka Rayasam. Sagalyn and two other books agents that Nightly spoke with still weren’t quite sure what comes next for political book publishing. Agents don’t think Biden will juice the publishing industry in the same way. It’s hard to envision a Biden book full of the kind of salacious gossip that’s made Trump books so popular over the years. “Trump was a singular, horrific figure,” Gail Ross, president of the Ross Yoon agency, told Nightly. “The aftereffects are just extraordinary.” Ross and Elyse Cheney, the agent who repped Leonnig and Rucker, each separately predicted that the next generation of post-Trump political books will be more issue- and idea-oriented and less focused on the occupant of the Oval Office. “We will use the term ‘political book’ more elastically,” Ross said. People are reading more during the pandemic — or at least buying books to fill their Zoom background shelves. Ross just sold a book from Sherrilyn Ifill about being on “the cliff of democracy.” Policy books “can be as successful as the scandal book,” she said. Cheney said she’s been obsessed lately with the idea that civilization is collapsing and that Big Tech executives hold as much power as the president. She would love to see more books about the behind the scenes worlds of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, though she admits Silicon Valley tends to be less dishy — and transparent — than Washington. “The relief of not having Trump in office is being able to think about things on a bigger scale,” Cheney said. “Or being able to think at all.” Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
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A message from Altria: Moving beyond smoking. Altria’s companies are leading the way in moving adult smokers away from cigarettes. Today, we are taking action to transition millions toward less harmful choices.
From cigarettes to innovative alternatives. By investing in a diverse mix of businesses, Altria is working to further broaden options. Our companies are encouraging adult smokers to transition to a range of choices that go beyond traditional, combustible cigarettes.
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See how we’re moving. | | | | |
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