1. Democrats' learning curve
This past week was beyond trying for the new House Democratic majority, and there are many Democrats who see it as proof the leadership needs a reset moment, says CNN's Chief National Correspondent John King:
The tensions between activist progressive freshman and more moderate members are very real, and reminiscent in many ways of tensions in the then-majority Republican ranks after the big Tea Party victories in 2010 and 2014.
Republicans never found consistent internal calm, and Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan both left office frustrated they were not able to advance many of their major policy goals. That recent history, Democrats say, has to be a lesson for their party now.
What to do, though, remains both a debate and a challenge.
The moderates complain their seats will be at risk if the party is defined as "socialist" or too soft on illegal immigration.
The new progressives, though, are in no mood to abandon what got them to Washington -- both on the substance and in the delivery on social media. This weekend, for example, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described capitalism as "not redeemable."
In the short term, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies are making urgent appeals to keep internal disagreements private -- and to not air policy or personal differences on Twitter or cable television. And they are urging Democrats to stay together on procedural votes, an area where Republicans have been able to catch Democrats off guard in the early weeks of the new majority.
A broader conversation among some Democrats is whether the team that helped Democrats win the 2018 midterms, and then worked masterfully to quash opposition to Pelosi returning as speaker, is fully up to the new challenge of being the majority.
Some of this grumbling is unquestionably a result of the tough week just finished. But some of it has merit, whether the question is how to keep closer tabs on potential GOP floor shenanigans or how it came to be that scheduling allowed a big Democratic vote on gun control to be overshadowed by the Michael Cohen public testimony.
Several veteran Democrats -- lawmakers, former lawmakers and strategists -- contacted in recent days said Speaker Pelosi's organizational skills and determination to keep family feuds quiet left them confident she would make adjustments. Several of them also suggested others in the Democratic leadership should learn lessons from the early bumps.
One major staff change was announced as the tough week came to a close.
Pelosi announced that her chief of staff the past 16 months, Danny Weiss, is leaving at the end of March -- just three months into the new majority. The new chief will be Terri McCullough, a former Pelosi aide who is returning, and who will become, according to the announcement, "the first woman in modern times to serve as Chief of Staff to the Speaker in a paid, full-time capacity."
The shifting challenge was made clear in the announcement.
Pelosi thanked Weiss, a 28-year Capitol Hill veteran, for "his masterful work orchestrating the transition to the Speaker's office."
Looking ahead, Pelosi said she welcomed McCullough's wisdom and insight "especially in this transformational Congress led by a historic number of women serving in the House of Representatives."
One of the veteran Democrats, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen as meddling in the Speaker's business, applauded the change as "a sign that she wants to shake things up; a tacit admission things need to be tighter."
2. Does the White House need a communications chief?
President Donald Trump lost his fifth White House communications director last week with the resignation of Bill Shine -- following in the footsteps of Michael Dubke, Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, and Hope Hicks.
And Politico's Eliana Johnson says he may not be replaced.
"It's probably the second-most unpleasant or difficult job in Washington, after White House chief of staff," Johnson said. "I'll be watching whether the White House looks to fill that job or just leaves it open and acknowledges that this is a job the President is doing himself."
3. Immigration hardliners worry about Trump
Trump came to office promising to stop the flow of illegal immigration. But lately he's also been saying he wants more people coming to the country legally -- much to the consternation of anti-immigration groups, according to New York Times White House reporter Michael Shear.
"When it comes to legal immigration, he's sent a different message recently, that he wants as much as possible to help businesses who need workers," Shear said. "That has enraged some of his most conservative, anti-immigration supporters. Breitbart News has written multiple articles about it. Lou Dobbs has condemned it."
Still, Trump's recent rhetoric doesn't match some of his administration's proposed policies to cut the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country, Shear said. "But as he heads into this 2020 re-election campaign, he has the potential at least to turn off some of his most conservative supporters."
4. Controversial court pick
Trump is on a record-setting pace when it comes to appointing new judges to the federal judiciary. And one of his most important picks is expected to be confirmed this week.
Neomi Rao was nominated to fill Brett Kavanaugh's seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals -- considered the second-most powerful court in the country.
"But her nomination has caused a little bit of intraparty Republican drama," Washington Post reporter Seung Min Kim said. "Freshman Sen. Josh Hawley earlier this month raised concerns about how she might rule on cases involving abortion."
Kim says Hawley got a "talking to" from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and even a call from Justice Clarence Thomas, for whom Rao once clerked, to reassure him about her views.
And Kim said that likely worked. "She should have enough votes to get confirmed by the end of the week, but still a very interesting nomination to watch."
5. Satire in the age of Trump
Washington's favorite vice president-turned president-turned former president is back this month -- Julia Louis Dreyfus' Selina Meyer returns on HBO's "Veep." And Time's Molly Ball notes that it's harder than ever to satirize DC.
"The show after the 2016 election had to do a little bit of adjusting to, shall we say, an era of Washington that has taken absurdity to a new level," Ball said. "I spent some time with Julia Louis Dreyfus recently, and she said she thought that some of the jokes on the show had to become a little bit more extreme to land in this particular era."
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