1/28/19
Congressional Republicans are suffering, as I have noted in the past, from a bad case of Stockholm syndrome. They’ve seen what’s happened to “the formers” who crossed the bully in the White House — e.g., former senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and former representative Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) — and all they can think is: There but for the grace of God. . . . Not even the loss of 40 House seats in 2018 and President Trump’s wretchedly low approval numbers can shake his iron grip on their fragile psyches. It’s as though their kidnapper had left them alone in the house, but they’re too scared to step outside. Republicans did not have to wait 35 days to end the pointless government shutdown. They could have cooperated with Democrats to keep the government open, if they had been willing to cross Trump. But only six Senate Republicans were willing to do so. Now, Republicans could send a strong signal to Trump that they will not support the misuse of his “emergency” powers to build a border wall that has not been funded by Congress. But while some Republicans have spoken out, others, such as the opportunistic Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), have actually encouraged the president toward a reckless usurpation of Congress’s power of the purse. Republicans also could have passed legislation to revoke the president’s authority to levy tariffs by absurdly labeling allies such as Canada a national-security threat. But even though most Republicans are uneasy about Trump’s tariffs, they haven’t acted to stop his protectionist outbursts.
The Senate Judiciary Committee actually passed bipartisan legislation to prohibit special counsel Robert S. Mueller III from being fired, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refused to give it a floor vote. Now, Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have introduced a bill that would compel the Justice Department to publicly release Mueller’s report. Good luck getting a vote from a majority leader who seems to view the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body as a wholly owned subsidiary of America’s Least Deliberative President. Another piece of legislation that McConnell can easily bottle up, should he so desire, is a bill, approved 357 to 22 by the House last week, that would prevent Trump from pulling out of NATO. This is not putting America First. This is putting Trump First, and it has become an unfortunate habit that congressional Republicans need to break. The only thing they have to fear is fear of Trump itself — what President Franklin Roosevelt aptly described, in another context, as “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.”
Please ignore and do not respond to post #2.