End Up Like A Dog That’s Been Beat Too Much

As a Republican for over 30 years, I’m sometimes guilty of succumbing to the idea that the GOP in Saint Paul and DC are “The Stupid Party”.   It’s learned behavior; they’ve fulfilled the prophecy all too often.

There are times that the GOP, at least in legislative bodies, feels like the Minnesota Vikings; great in concept, but they will always let you down when the chips are down.

It’s not true, of course – but the media, and the GOP’s own tendency toward circular firing squads, doesn’t help much.

But it’s encouraging to see the Dems have that problem, sometimes, too:

The turn of events Monday marked the most serious cracks in the unity Schumer has painstakingly built within his caucus since he became Democratic leader a year ago. After holding almost all Democrats together through fights over the Supreme Court, health care, taxes and even Friday’s vote that shut down the government, Schumer is now under attack from the left and confronting pointed criticisms of his negotiating skill.

His performance resulted in a Democratic-led shutdown — and an agreement with McConnell that provided no guarantee of a new immigration law. But multiple Democratic senators and aides told POLITICO in the aftermath that it might have been Schumer’s only way out: He couldn’t go against the bulk of his left-leaning caucus in fighting for DACA recipients. But he also could not allow the shutdown to drag on for so long that it began hurting his vulnerable incumbents.

When you’ve got Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer bagging on Chuckles Schumer, you know you’ve into comedy gold.

14 thoughts on “End Up Like A Dog That’s Been Beat Too Much

  1. I can understand the outrage of the left. How can you allow 700,000 Dreamer votes to just slip away like that?

    There are another six million votes in the pipeline and if you fall down on the first half-million or so, how can you be expected to stand up for the rest?

    But Schumer is smart. He knows that promises are just as easy to break as to make and he intends to make and break a whole lot of promises for those votes.

  2. Anybody who takes Mitch McConnell at his word deserves what he gets, and Schumer plays the same game, so score one for the Karma party. (And, for the record, the firmest thing about McConnell is his chin.)

  3. So, two New Yorkers — Trump & Schumer — go head to head & Trump wins. Yet if you believe the MSM, especially after the Wolff book, Trump is an incompetent oaf who spends hours each day watching the mythical “gorilla channel” on television.

  4. While most people are in favor of some reasonable settlement of the DACA problem, and will blame Trump and the GOP for not coming up with a good solution, the GOP’s claim that the government shutdown proves Democrats care more about illegal immigrants than citizens is a political stance that will resonate.

    This shutdown will only be remembered if it had gone on for a week or more, but you have to ask: Is this the Democrat’s highest priority? If not, why is DACA the item they’re using their maximum leverage on? Why not ask for something that affects actual citizens who can vote, ideally all of them? Will the next threatened shutdown be over some bathroom bill for transgendered students? Democrats need to find issues that most Americans really care about. The public may agree with the Democrats on DACA, but it’s not high on their list of concerns. The Democrats appear out of touch, again.

  5. Why is DACA an issue. A illegal executive order by President Obama, that probably is going to be overturned by SCOTUS. So Trump gives a 6 month warning, that his executive will start enforcing the existing law as was previously passed by Congress and signed into law.

    If this is a huge problem, then Congress needs to get off the stick and change the law. But passing law is difficult in a partisan atmosphere And rather than each congress critter being accountable for their own position and vote, they want to bundle everything into a single bill with something for everyone so that they can hide accountability.

  6. Why should you make any law? Some judge in Hawaii might just overturn it anyway.

  7. Everybody is in favor of doing nice things for those nice DACA kids who are portrayed in the media. But in an election campaign, or after a shutdown, Americans will be reminded (by the GOP) of all of the reasons why they hate illegal immigration. There is still a substantial majority of Americans who favor “doing something” about illegal immigration and immigration in general, and they’re fine with deportation and other not-so-nice policies to accomplish that. Immigration is a losing issue for Democrats.

    GW Bush couldn’t get immigration reform through because the American public and populist politicians had already been turned against it. Immigration has become politically more toxic and partisan since then, and I haven’t see any signs that this has changed. DACA is a small part of a much bigger issue, and support for DACA is, as a result, broad but shallow. It’s hard to see the Democrats getting a big boost in November for championing DACA. If DACA reform passes, it will be in a form of the one sweet spot in a harsh anti-immigration law. DACA will be the excuse centrist Democrats from red states will use to vote for it, and against immigration, but the real reason will be that their voter base favors more restrictions. The GOP is not giving in on DACA until they have the full anti-immigration package that goes with it. And on this issue, the GOP reflects the nation’s views.

  8. The GOP only partially reflects the nation’s views on immigration. This is because the economic libertarians in the GOP are open borders fanatics. Some very powerful people in the GOP are vocally pro open borders: McCain, the Bush’s, Grover Norquist. The US Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to the cause of reducing the wages of working Americans. American sovereignty means nothing to them, and they are heavy political contributors in the primaries.
    In some sense it no longer matters what the people want. Progressives have found a weak spot in the constitution: the people may be able to amend the constitution as they see fit (albeit with a super majority), but the amendment process must be valid under the current constitution. I have no doubt that if the amendment process was used to trim back some of the power of the federal government, an unelected judge would stop it.
    This has already been done at the state level, in California, of course, regarding prop 8.

  9. but you have to ask: Is this the Democrat’s highest priority?

    Of course it is. They know that they get 80-90% of the illegal immigrant vote. This whole charade is nothing if not to increase their voter count.

  10. DACA is a bargaining chip, albeit a big one. Most folks aren’t too concerned about limiting the “dreamers” – but “you” (Dems) don’t get DACA legalized without giving something in return, e.g. a wall or other significant law reform (which will ultimately also be ignored). The shutdown was Schumer’s attempt to get something without having to use his chip.

  11. jdm description of “bait” is very much in line with my assertion. DemoncRats do not want DACA to pass. No way, no how. If they do, they lose all political leverage and polling consistently shows black and latino citizens are against amnesty.

  12. The DACA people are a bargaining chip. Their parents made them so.

    Trump plays this one brilliantly. He let the Democrats shoot themselves in the foot by their appearing to favor foreigners over American citizens. McConnell says he will present a vote on DACA — but it seems safe to say that strings will be attached. It will all work out: wall + DACA.

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