House Democrats' obsession with former President Trump was on full display today during a hearing of the House Rules Committee on their proposal to reform the Electoral Count Act (ECA), released just 24 hours earlier.  There is bipartisan agreement that the ECA needs reform.  The Electoral Count Act is a federal law adding to procedures set out in the Constitution of the United States for the counting of electoral votes following a presidential election. (There is some debate whether the ECA is even necessary or constitutional but all agree the 1887 Act has problems.)

As mentioned yesterday, House Democrats have used ECA reform first and foremost as a political stunt. 

.@HouseAdmnGOP Ranking Member @RodneyDavis before the House Rules Committee on #ECA Reform Act:

"This bill is about Democrats' obsession with Donald Trump, not about actually passing good legislation."

— RNLA ⚖️ (@TheRepLawyer) September 20, 2022

In a statement that would make the founding fathers cringe, Democrat Party consigliere Marc Elias said: “It’s time to admit that Democracy is a partisan issue.”

For a great example of how radical Democrats in leadership have become (especially in the House), look no further than their proposed Electoral Count Act (ECA) reform, which fully endorses Marc Elias' position.  In contrast, Senate Republicans have worked to achieve a truly bipartisan and clear-cut approach to ECA reform.

Whether you oppose, support, or are neutral on Electoral Count Act reform, today's Senate Rules Committee hearing showed why progressive Democrats are the extremists on any election law reform.  The Electoral Count Act (ECA) is a relatively obscure 135-year-old law that was passed to fix the day for the meeting of the electors for President and Vice President, and to provide for and regulate the counting of the votes for President and Vice President, and the decision of questions arising thereon.  While the reform effort is a technical bill that reasonable people can respectfully support, disagree with, or further discuss, it does have bipartisan support.  Yet any ultimate reform efforts may be doomed by progressives who only look for partisan advantage in elections. 

On Thursday, election law professor Rick Hasen appeared on MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes" to discuss the risk of election subversion during upcoming elections. Despite the segment being entitled "Republicans Against Democracy," Hasen, a liberal, began the process to undermine democracy in the 2024 election should Republicans win even before the candidates are known:

"It may take the American people going out into the streets to assure that we can have a free and fair election in 2024."

We'll give Professor Hasen the benefit of the doubt that he did not mean "take to the streets" in the way that a Black Lives Matter leader recently used it to stand for rioting and burning. However, it lines up with the alarming trend of Democrat activists not accepting election results. As Professor Derreck Mueller noted, the last time all the Democrats in Congress accepted a Republican Presidential election victory was in 1988.

On Tuesday, Senators Angus King, Amy Klobuchar, and Dick Durbin announced their proposal for reforming the Electoral Count Act (ECA), the Electoral Count Modernization Act. Before we begin on the actual bill, we must give the Democrats credit for actually making a proposal on the ECA. After massive "voting rights" bills that had little to do with making elections better or voting rights and more to do with their re-elections and a federal takeover of elections, the Democrats are actually focused on the subject of the bill's title this time. We are hopeful that this is sign the Democrats' dreams of partisan election "reform" outside the ECA are dead.