I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Thursday, January 13th.

The Martin Luther King Day deadline set by Democrats for voting rights legislation to advance in the Senate,

continues to approach,

with still no deal with Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Cinema to vote to suspend the filibuster for this issue.

On yesterday's show, Civil Rights Leader Reverend Al Sharpton was here,

and he told me he's got a meeting with Mansion about this coming up.

I asked Reverend Sharpton, given the months of meetings with Mansion on the build back better bill that went nowhere,

does he have any reason to believe this will end differently?

I have no reason to believe that it will and I have no reason to believe that it won't.

I think that it puts us in a

position that if Mansion and cinema say we're willing to keep talking, for us to say we're not

willing to talk, I think would be our shooting down and giving them an excuse saying we're willing

to talk, and they would not continue engaging in the conversation.

Reverend Sharpton here yesterday, an article on the DC news site, Punch Bowl News this morning,

focuses on how much political capital Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are spending

on a likely failed effort. It says, for example, quote, we all understand that it's unlikely to pass, right?

And there are plenty of Senate Democrats and many on the House side too that wonder why the

House is pressing so hard, why the White House, forgive me, is pressing so hard on this.

And why is Schumer forcing vulnerable lawmakers to do away with a filibuster?

The vast majority of Democratic senators are ready to scrap the 60-vote threshold if they can win. They can't right now. And worse than

that, Senate Democrats don't have a graceful way out of this political jam. It's a bit reminiscent

of when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he wouldn't lift the debt

...