Hy and Christopher weigh in on Matt Gaetz withdrawing his nomination to become U.S. Attorney General, mostly due to a choice that Mike Johnson allowed his backbenchers to make happen.
      
Knowing that likely they were not enough votes in the U.S. Senate to confirm Gaetz as AG, President-elect Donald Trump had pushed Johnson to put the U.S. House in recess. The Senate was poised to enter recess for a few days as well, and absent Congress-in-session, Trump could appoint Gaetz into the AG position for up to two years without need of confirmation.
      
Instead, Speaker Johnson allowed some of his members to set a schedule to keep the U.S. House in session all the way through Christmas and the inauguration. The North Louisiana Republican leader could have used his influence to convince them to bang the gavel into recess. He opted not to do so, likely remembering the Gaetz tried to eject him from his job as House speaker.
Christopher observes how Johnson could’ve used certain procedural methods, similar to this, to diffuse the entire bathroom controversy.

Delaware elected the first transgender congresswoman, Sarah McBride, and in reply, Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican representative, had introduced a bill to ban transgender people, including congressional members, officers and employees, from using single-sex bathrooms and other facilities on Capitol Hill that correspond to their gender identity.

To thwart a legislative battle over that bill, Speaker Johnson declared the public bathroom access must be according to one’s birth gender, “It is important to note that each member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol. Women deserve women’s only spaces.”

The hosts speculate could Johnson have vocally urged Sarah McBride to use her member’s bathroom, and simply proceeded to ignore the problem?  What if Johnson had taken no action either way? Nancy Mace, a flamethrower, would have pursued her legislation, but the speaker could have quietly killed it in committee. No one would have been the wiser. Or maybe not.

Hy and Christopher then examine the results of the LA legislative session and wonder if raising the sales tax by a penny was the only politically possible alternative to fund an income tax cut.

We conclude the show talking about an exciting new partnership between the New Orleans Opera and SoFAB with guest NOOA General & Artistic Director Lila Palmer.

Dozens of times in the last 200 years, new works of opera have premiered in New Orleans, earning the Crescent City the moniker “The First City of Opera” in the United States.   
 
On December 8, The Cook-Off, a new comic opera in English about the creation of the Mac & Cheese, will premier at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in honor of SoFAB’s 20th Anniversary--and in honor of the retirement of SoFAB’s founder Liz Williams.  
 
The New Orleans Opera Association in cooperation with SoFAB brings a nationally acclaimed cast to put on the new production. They even debate in song whether the “Mac & Cheese” was invented in the Big Easy.
 
With Music by Shawn Okpebholo and Text by Mark Campbell, the new opera features three competitors from the nation’s favorite fictional cooking show, “America Loves Food”, as they battle it out to make the best version of a classic comfort food: macaroni & cheese!
 
The Cook-Off will premier in two back-to-back performances in the SoFAB’s main Museum gallery at 11:30 AM and 2:00 pm. on Sunday, December 8, to the musical accompaniment of members of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, at 1504 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70113.
 
The 11:30 AM performance will include a special curated brunch in SoFAB’s restaurant space.   Tickets are available at https://noo-internet.choicecrm.net/dist/#/event-details/S0:E475

The New Orleans Opera’s production of the opera The Cook-Off in the museum is the first of several planned partnerships between the two cultural institutions.  The joint ventures are the brain children of NOOA General & Artistic Director Lila Palmer and SoFAB Director Constance Jackson.  
 
Palmer has previously produced opera with heritage partners including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston, London Transport Museum and Museum of London.   Jackson, a New Orleans native, also pioneered artistic partnerships in the UK capitol city as a non-profit executive over the past decade.

NOOA Premier of NEW English language opera The Cook-Off at Southern Food & Beverage Museum In celebration of 20th Anniversary
DATE: Sunday, December 8, 2024 
TIME: 11:30 AM and 2:00 PM 
LOCATION:  Southern Food & Beverage Museum, 1504 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70113
Tickets for Brunch & Opera: Call (504) 529-3000 or go online at www.neworleansopera.org