Welcome to Talking Feds, a roundtable that brings together prominent former federal officials

and special guests for a dynamic discussion of the most important political and legal

topics of the day.

I'm Harry Littman.

It seems as if every aspect of our political life plays out through the prism of the deep

partisan divide that remains six months after the end of the Trump administration.

This week the House of Representatives formed a select committee to investigate the January

6th attack on the Capitol.

One month after Senate Republicans blocked an effort to form an independent bipartisan

commission.

Most members of the dominant Trump faction of the Republican Party, especially those whose

conduct might be put under the microscope, fought creation of the committee.

Now they'll have to decide whether to participate in earnest or perhaps as with the impeachments

to try to disperse the investigation as a partisan witch hunt.

Probably the most important legislative priority in the country.

The effort to secure full voting rights for all Americans is caught up in the web of

state efforts to pass restrictive voting measures, most recently in Texas and federal court

decisions, most recently in the Supreme Court last week, that make it harder for Congress

to push back.

Whether there is any strong federal response at all may turn on the willingness of one

senator to revisit the filibuster.

A lawsuit by the former president against the big tech companies that have banned him looked

...