The Angle

The Angle: Good News, Finally Edition

Slate’s daily newsletter on the Alabama elections, the tax bill, and a toxic judge.

Doug Jones supporters celebrate on Tuesday night. 

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Huzzah: Alabama’s black voters stood up for Doug Jones in a big way, and now the Democratic Party must remember what it owes them, Jamelle Bouie writes. The Republican Party, on the other hand, should see this as a reckoning, but Reihan Salam doubts it will. And Isaac Chotiner proposes—only half in jest—that Doug Jones, a candidate who won in a red state without compromising his blue positions, should consider a run for president.

That was quick: Jim Newell predicted today that the GOP would push to pass the tax bill before Doug Jones is seated. And this afternoon, Jordan Weissmann reports, House and Senate Republicans reached a deal and announced they were ready to move forward.

He brought us in: Dahlia Lithwick has long known that Judge Alex Kozinski, now facing harassment allegations, was creepy, objectifying, and alienating toward women in his professional orbit—including her. Now she wonders why she stayed silent for two decades.

Fellow kids: Adults play teenagers on kids’ TV for a number of practical reasons. Christina Cauterucci wonders what effect all those grown “adolescent” bodies might have on young viewers.

For fun: Laura Miller’s favorite books this year.

And Katy Waldman’s, in case you missed it,

Rebecca