Good Monday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing. Stay tuned after the show for a message from Amazon. And I'm Jake Sherman. We've covered a lot of December legislative nightmares, but this one might be the worst. Not only there are a ton of issues, there are a ton of explosive and contentious issues on a collision course. The White House is under siege and the Democratic majority seems to be

trying to do backflips on a tightrope. Time is a precious commodity, as is political capital,

and everyone is going to maximize both. It's folly at this point to predict what might happen

because no one has any clue, but there are a few storylines worth keeping an eye on based on our

reporting and the collective wisdom of our colleagues.

House Democrats want to impeach by year end. Is that doable or advisable? Some Dems are starting to think that rushing to complete the process to remove the president by the end of the year, a completely

arbitrary deadline, is a dumb idea. Democrats, for their part, want to strike while the iron is hot and not leave such

an explosive issue lingering. But time is quite short, and the politics are getting even more

complicated for House Dems. This week, House Intel Chair Adam Schiff will start circulating his

report to members, and his committee will vote on it Tuesday. Expect a tax on shift, the intel

process, and continued undermining of the committee's work. Wednesday is the House Judiciary Committee's

first hearing about what is an impeachable offense. The president, as we foreshadowed last week,

is not participating. Sometime during this week, Jerry Nadler will likely formally announce a hearing with Schiff to present

the report.

By Friday, the White House has to say whether it will participate at all of this process.

By next week, December 9th, expect an early presentation of Schiff's report and the noticing

of a Republican response.

Will this happen during the same week?

Unclear, but we'll be telling and understanding

whether Dems can impeach by the end of the year. The DOJ IG report on the origins of the Russia

probe will come out the same week, and Congress will likely begin considering some funding bills

ahead of a December 20th deadline. And then there's the week of December 16th. Expect a public

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