Lawmakers may be counting down the days "Minute By Minute" until they have to return to Capitol Hill in the fall, when election season will be in full swing. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Both bodies of Congress usually adjourn for a four- to six-week period between late July and early September. But this year’s congressional summer breeze has been more like a political gale. Lawmakers barely spent any time in session over the past few months. Both the House and Senate took off a week in the middle of July so Republicans could conduct their convention in Milwaukee. That was after an abbreviated week in Washington just after July 4th. Congress was out of session from late June until after the Fourth. The House ditched town early last month, lopping off one week of its schedule. In fact, the House has only convened for a handful of weeks since May 24.
Yacht rock impresario Rupert Holmes would characterize this as an "Escape."
Do you really need more of a reason to blend a piña colada?
Expect Congress to accomplish much the rest of the year? Well, that yacht – has sailed. We’re deep into the throes of what is going to be a brutal campaign season for the presidency, control of the House and the Senate. All lawmakers are required to do the rest of the year is figure out a way to avoid a government shutdown in late September. Is Congress capable of much else? Well, doubtful. But in the words of the Doobie Brothers, "What a Fool Believes."
A cryptocurrency bill? Maybe in the lame duck session, but doubtful. A tax bill – involving credits for parents? Same. How about legislation offered by GOP vice presidential nominee and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to bolster rail safety after the Norfolk Southern crash in East Palestine, Ohio, early last year? Few are on board with that. Democrats don’t want to award Vance a legislative victory just before the election. And Republicans aren’t willing to help Brown. He faces one of the most competitive Senate contests in the country against GOP challenger Bernie Moreno.
Both Republicans and Democrats will be wishing they had some of Olivia Newton-John's "Magic" as election campaigns pick up and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris square off for the presidency. (Getty Images)
Yacht rock might not capture all that’s going on in politics right now. One can understand the need to just check out of the political environment this month, especially after the drama involving Biden and the attempted assassination of Trump.
Yacht rock is for summer. But when it comes to elections and governing, that is the season of classic rock.
"There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief," declared both Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix in "All Along the Watchtower."
But Congress will be back in due time in early September. Tens of millions of people will cast their ballots. And no one has addressed this as poignantly as The Who.
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"Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. We won’t get fooled again," they sang.
It may be enough for you to let loose one of Roger Daltrey’s signature screams.
Which is why the "yacht rock" period of politics is much more pleasant.
Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/reporters-notebook-what-yacht-rock-summer-looks-like-capitol-hill