A groundhog day of congressional fighting. I like the image.

That was a cow.

I don't like the result. The imagery I think is excellent.

Hello and welcome to the 530 Politics Podcast. I'm Gailan Drouk. Congress reached an agreement

on about $900 billion in pandemic relief funding over the weekend. It took months and neither

party is particularly satisfied, but it is providing a lifeline to the American economy

as coronavirus cases surge.

So today we'll talk about the politics behind how the package came together and what it

might say about compromise in Biden's Washington. We're also going to check in on the Senate

runoff elections in Georgia. Election Day is two weeks away and the polling hasn't changed

much. Both races are still neck and neck. So we're going to take a step back and look

at what these races tell us about newly competitive parts of the South more broadly. A lot of

attention was paid to the Midwest in the run up to last month's presidential election

and the electorate looks quite different in a place like Georgia.

And then lastly, as different factions of the Democratic Party fight over cabinet appointments,

we'll look at what Biden's nominations say about the Democratic Party. Here with me to

do all that are senior politics writer Perry Bacon Jr. Hey Perry.

Good to see you Gailan.

And five thirty eight contributor Meredith Conroy. Meredith is a political science professor

at California State University San Bernardino. Hey Meredith.

Hi, thanks for having me.

Thanks for being here and Nate is out this week and happy holidays to anybody who is listening

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