It's enormous fun watching Congressional Republicans squirm.

[MineralMan]

And squirming they are. Just watch Paul Ryan saying anything positive about Donald Trump. It causes him physical pain. Same goes for all of the prominent Republicans. They hate the man. They don't trust him. They fear him.

He holds in his hands the power to turn the Republican Party into even more of a laughing stock than it already is, and perhaps even to destroy it. And yet, their constituents voted for him in the primaries. They need those votes for their own races.

Republicans are in the depths of a quandary. The voters chose Trump. They need the voters to choose them, too. So, they are forced to support him or risk losing their own constituents. It's freaking hilarious.

Just watch prominent Republicans when they answer questions about Trump from the media. Their discomfort is palpable as they swallow their real feelings and try to say something nice.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I like it that they squirm. It's like pouring salt on slugs.

Ryan and the others have really put themselves in an impossible position: they know Trump is a disaster who shouldn't be allowed within 100 miles of the Oval Office, but they also know that if they want to get re-elected they have to appease the knuckledraggers and troglodytes that comprise Trump's base.

It's delicious. Pass the salt.

[MineralMan]

2. Indeed.

[kstewart33]

3. MMan, you have a classic case of schadenfreude.

And in these recent times, don't we all!

[underpants]

4. They are very protected by gerrymandering

Frankly they and the Dems basically agree on certain set boundaries so everyone is safe and about 30-40 seats are really ever in doubt.

Every once in a while they screw up. Cantor. They dumped the saltiest of teabagger land into his district assuming the regulars would cover them. They didn't realize that ALL of them would vote. Add in the open primary (there was no Dem primary) so every Dem, like me, that never missed a chance to vote against Cantor could do so. Even if they had a Dem
Primary I often still voted against Cantor because he was going to win anyway. Bratt beat Cantor by 7,000 votes which is 1 in 5 people int the that district that voted for Obama.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. By late today you just know these

Optic sound bite seeking will step into it big time. If Walsh is an example,Katie bar the door,cause the twits are a coming.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. The phrase that comes to my mind is "looking like a poleaxed steer". They just get a haunted

expression on their face.

[Orsino]

7. That's why billionaires buy them. n/t

[longship]

8. All Drumpf has to do is say "Afghanistan bananastan" and they go into a trance.

A rather obscure cultural reference there.

Sorry.

Or, maybe "Madagascar" or "Constantinople" might work as well.

Yet another obscure cultural reference.

R& for you MM.

[Motley13]

9. or Tan zan' ia

instead of Tan za nia'

[longship]

10. Citations for my post.

"Afghanistan bananastan": The Hot Rock (Robert Redford!)

"Madagascar" and "Constantinople": The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (Woody Allen, Helen Hunt, David Ogden Stiers)

Enjoy! Both good flicks.

BTW, the wiki has it wrong. It is clearly not "Afghanistan banana stand".