Pierce: The Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemies

[babylonsister]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a57188/republicans-gridlock-themselves/


The Republicans Are Their Own Worst Enemies
With unified government, they've gridlocked themselves.
By Charles P. Pierce
Aug 24, 2017


I believe that the opening of the next session of the Congress may well be delayed until they finish construction on the octagon in the Senate chamber. The president* seems just a tad displeased by the performance of the congressional Republican leaders. I hope they got the breakables out of the Oval Office in time. ABC News takes us to the electric Twitter machine for the opening salvos.

In a pair of tweets Thursday morning, Trump attacked McConnell and Ryan for not tying an increase in the debt limit to a recent Veterans Affairs bill that passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support.

As explained, of course, this is something else about which the president* knows approximately dick.

Historically, Republicans and Democrats have clashed over how to raise the debt ceiling and are motivated by the threat of default. Linking a popular VA reform bill to the must-pass legislation likely would have only delayed the passage of the former and not expedited the passage of the latter.

Yeah, could have been sooooo easy.

The curious thing is that it is the president* who has absolutely no leverage in this fight. As a politician, he's not good enough, nor smart enough, and, doggone it, people can't stand him. The people cheering at his rallies can't get anything he wants passed unless McConnell and Ryan want it passed, too. We are in for congressional government for a spell here and, if you were made nervous over the past few decades about how much power was accruing to the executive branch, you ought to be in the tall cotton these days. Except, of course, that at the head of the executive branch is a guy from whom you otherwise would not buy a banana, and whose basic public persona terrifies even old hands like James Clapper.

To be sure, there are still enough common interests between the president* and the congressional leadership to get passed some of what they all want, if only the president* would shut his electronic cakehole long enough to think about how he can help do it. I mean, it wasn't McConnell or Ryan who threatened to shut the government down over the stupid border wall for which Mexico was supposed to pay.

And, in any event, they both have enough trouble these days. Neither of their caucuses is unified, and Paul Ryan may be the most political maladroit Speaker of the House we have had in decades. He makes John Boehner look like Uncle Joe Cannon. We have unified Republican government and, somehow, all the checks and balances suddenly have shifted into overdrive, and the dampers have been thrown, and the Republicans have gridlocked themselves. Mr. Madison would be thrilled, and probably amazed.

[mcar]

1. Pierce has been on a roll lately

[The River]

2. Republicans,

please proceed.

[LovesPNW]

3. Republicans have always been idiots

How they keep winning is beyond me.

[gratuitous]

4. Something to do with what Candidate Trump said on the stump

Again and again, he told his adoring audiences and the people of America that the 2016 election was rigged, and that the election was going to be stolen. Inattentive folks thought he was talking about it being rigged against him, but he never really specified that and oddly enough, for a topic Candidate Trump visited and re-visited so often, President Trump hasn't uttered a peep about that.

So, if you're wondering how Republicans keep winning, Trump told us.