Skip to content
RollCall logo

Political Theater

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., right, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., lead narrow majorities in their respective chambers as the 2026 midterm elections loom.

There is no such things as an off-year in politics

By Jason Dick, Daniela Altimari and Mary Ellen McIntire
Posted November 6, 2025 at 1:25pm
The movie “One Battle After Another” expands on issues from the novel it is based on, Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland.” Jason Dick discusses the book with Pynchon scholar Sean Carswell on the latest Political Theater podcast. (Jason Dick/CQ Roll Call)

Taking the ‘Vineland’ express to ‘One Battle After Another’

By Jason Dick
Posted October 31, 2025 at 10:08am
Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, conducts a press briefing on March 17, 2025. A hard-line approach to immigration is defining President Donald Trump's second term. And, immigration as an issue is one of the biggest drivers of the new film "One Battle After Another."

Immigration, race and ‘One Battle After Another’

By Jason Dick and Chris Johnson
Posted October 21, 2025 at 5:07pm
Filmmaker Raoul Peck joins Roll Call Editor-in-Chief Jason Dick during a discussion for the Political Theater podcast in Washington on Oct. 6, 2025.

An Orwell movie for Orwellian times

By Jason Dick
Posted October 7, 2025 at 3:51pm
The blinds at the ticket window for the ferry to Fort Sumter are closed in Charleston, S.C., on Oct. 2, 2025 due to the government shutdown.

The great ‘meh’: Scenes from a shutdown

By Jason Dick and Mary Ellen McIntire
Posted October 3, 2025 at 11:18am
The 119th Congress has shown little willingness to assert its own constitutional powers, Jason Dick and Molly Reynolds observe in the latest Political Theater podcast.

Let’s get existential

By Jason Dick
Posted September 23, 2025 at 6:01pm
Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters after Senate Republicans’ lunch meeting in the Capitol on Tuesday.

Revisiting friendly advice for the House, Senate

By Jason Dick
Posted September 18, 2025 at 1:05pm
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, seen here in 2017 talking to a group of students at the Capitol, is among the former members of Congress to be profiled in Roll Call's Life After Congress feature.

They seem fine: Life after Congress

By Jason Dick and Jessica Wehrman
Posted September 10, 2025 at 1:07pm
Rep. Thomas Massie has a discharge petition and he’s not afraid to use it.

Discharge petition: Congressional procedure or great band name?

By Jason Dick and Nathan L. Gonzales
Posted September 3, 2025 at 6:02pm
Activists with Shut Down DC hold a protest outside of the EPA headquarters in Washington on Thursday to rename it as the Environmental Pollution Agency.

How Democrats hope to flip the script on energy as a campaign issue

By Jessica Wehrman and David Jordan
Posted August 7, 2025 at 3:11pm