Republicans are thrilled.The House on Friday cleared a short-term measure to avoid a government shutdown and raise the debt limit through December, ratifying a deal President Trump struck with Democrats.
Lawmakers voted 316-90 for the package that includes more than $15 billion in disaster recovery aid for communities affected by Hurricane Harvey. The majority of House Republicans voted for the bill, something that had been uncertain, but more of the votes in favor came from Democrats.
All of the 90 votes in opposition were from Republicans.
Alas, poor Ryan and McConnell are discovering that the scorpion cannot, in the end, deny it's nature. I'd feel bad for them if they didn't so desperately deserve even sting they're currently receiving. Sow Fox News, reap Donald Trump....Trump humiliated the Republican leaders by siding with their Democratic counterparts Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. In a White House meeting, Trump blindsided his allies and endorsed the Democrats’ proposal for hurricane relief and raising the debt ceiling.
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Trump has tired of his former allies. He can sense what the world sees: Paul Ryan is a weak and craven man. The speaker supported the Dreamer program to protect immigrant youth. When Trump rescinded it, Ryan dutifully said he "did the right thing."
Trump no longer trusts McConnell, whose cynicism and guile have not delivered any victories that make the president look good. Their last conversation reportedly ended in an expletive-laden shouting match.
So for the first time in his flailing presidency, Trump reached out to Democrats and abandoned the hardcore conservatives who have supported him most loyally. Devoid of principles and political loyalties, Trump doesn’t care about coherence. His abrupt move, which left Schumer barely able to contain his glee, was a classic exercise in male dominance: humiliate to prevail.
As for Schumer and Pelosi, well, they're happy to use Trump where convenient, but their base isn't captured by his cult of personality so they have considerably more freedom around him than Republicans do. I do suspect, however, that his chances of impeachment will fall considerably if this sort of thing continues. Trump has already proven amazingly useful to the Democrats. He's a massive wedge driving straight down the Republican party, he's totally incompetent at actually moving an agenda, and the thought of him in the Oval Office appears to drive Democrats into a rage. If he can actually be manipulated into helping Democrats once in a while, the argument for replacing him with Pence gets even weaker than it already is.
