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Welcome to our VIP feature for Hot Air as well as a members-only show in the Hughniverse! Duane Patterson and I now are doing a Week in Review show for Friday evenings, exclusive to members in both platforms. Duane has been the Generalissimo behind the Hugh Hewitt Show for more than two decades, and we have partnered on weekly commentary since 2007.

We had way too much fun, as usual, even after spending two hours on the Salem Radio Network doing Hugh’s show. Here are a few highlights of our conversation and debate:

• “The deal passed in the Senate late last night or early this morning,” I say about the deal, “depending on how you count, to the absolute amazement of apparently a bunch of rookie reporters that have never, ever, ever covered a debt ceiling.” Duane concurs: “It was always headlines in search of an actual story. It was not in doubt. It was never in doubt. “
• “The biggest thing out of this,” I argue, “is that it’s forcing them to go into regular order for appropriations in this budget cycle, and I think the next one. This is a rule that will expire at the end of this session of Congress, but we’ve got two budget cycles left. … It’s a tactical win,” I stress. “We should keep an eye and keep the heat on for the next budget process, but let’s not make a tactical win into a rhetorical defeat.”
• Joe Biden’s fall on stage may not have Democrats recalculating their 2024 decision, but it should. Biden was already having some issues with coherence at the Air Force Academy speech, and followed with “a scary moment” in a bad fall. “We were 30 second away from a different story,” Duane says. “If he would have hit his head harder and and knocked himself out, or worse, we were we were 30 seconds away from Kamala Harris, putting her hand on the Bible, taking the oath.”
• “Democrats have to be looking at this and saying we can’t have Kamala Harris as the Plan B,” I reply. But who do Democrats have for such a Plan B? Duane identifies four potential fail-safe options, one of which he says “scares” him. (And none of them are Andrew Cuomo, either.)
• But none of them satisfy the progressive base’s expectations of succession either, I argue. “Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris because it’s a black woman’s turn next,” I point out, “and if you put up another white guy at the top of the ticket, you are gonna have such outrage among among the progressives.” The reason why Democrats are clinging to Biden, I argue, you can put off that debate for a while and get around the Harris problem.
• Both of us openly scoff at the recusal excuse offered by Judge Mark Walker in Florida and especially his claim that DeSantis’ team engaged in “rank judge shopping.” As I wrote earlier and say here, “The only reason Mark Walker has that is because Disney deliberately judge shopped it to the Northern District with the clear intent that Mark Walker was going to grab that case.”
• Duane agrees and figures that Walker was trying to head off an embarrassing rebuke by the 11th Circuit. “What do you want to bet,” Duane asks, that “one of his clerks heard from one of the clerks up in the 11th Circuit, and a little sidebar message got handed down, saying you might want to get out from under this before you get steamrolled.”

We have plenty more, including our observations on the campaign now that DeSantis has fully entered the race. Be sure to watch it all, and join us in the comments!