Opportunity, Knocking

We see these things every day on Facebook: "Sign this petition to force Congress to impeach Trump!" Petition, petition, petition. Different wording, same message.

People, please!

I already hate all the things that Facebook wants me to do every time I turn on the computer (you know what I'm talking about). Why on earth would I take time to do something as futile as signing a petition to the Republicans in Congress?

Do you honestly believe those people are going to slap Trump when they can't even repeal Obamacare?

Granted, there have been and will continue to be the occasional party kamikazes, like Corker and Flake, on suicide missions to save the Republic, not to mention the Republican Party. And expect more resignations by senior Republican members of Congress, opting not to run even in safe districts, like Jeb Hensarling in the Texas Fifth. Not an old guy. Why is he dropping out?

But prosecution/legislative action against malfeasance or obstruction in the Trump administration? Not gonna happen.

We have one more year of this hilarious nightmare. Then the people get to strike back. Until that is over, Congressional Republicans are going to grab the gunwales and sit tight until almost exactly one year from today, when comes a major mid-term general election. They're going to have to be kicked in the gut before they do anything about their disaster that keeps on giving. Serve them the election they deserve, and they'll do something about Trump. However many of them are left by then.

Attendance and enthusiasm are both up at Democratic events since January 20, starting the very next day -- January 21 -- with the Women's March on Washington. People are donating money and responding to phone calls to volunteer to work, and are already working, with more people than ever talking about filing to run for public office. The front-burner skillet is heating up.

Meanwhile, Trump is easily one of the most unpopular figures in American life, let alone the presidency. He works at alienating independent and swing voters. He flails around like a shadow-boxer. Remember his campaign. It was all him, and his superior brain didn't think he needed an infrastructure supporting him of experts and advisors, so when he suddenly needed "foreign policy experts" to look legit, he picks a bunch of people with no experience and no smarts and he gets Carter Page and George Papadopoulos and Sam Clovis, who nevertheless work very hard to do what the boss wants.

IMO, the Democratic Party is our only hope as a bulwark against crazy, and anything to do in Washington, D.C., that includes the name Hillary Clinton is crap. Some things we just need to let go of.

Yes, We're Tired of So Much Winning!

Vice President Mike Pence broke a 50-50 tie in the US Senate last night to deny bank and credit card customers the ability to band together in class action lawsuits against Wall Street banks and credit card companies that rip them off.

They say that Trump will sign the bill immediately, probably with a brass band and marching elephants to celebrate getting to sign something, anything, despite how badly it hurts the consuming public. He won't know what's actually in the bill and how it hurts regular, non-billionaire type people, but then, he also won't care.

So who were the two Republicans who forced the tie-breaker? Surprise! Not Bob Corker and not Jeff Flake and not Susan Collins and not John McCain and not Lisa Murkowski. They all voted for it. The two defecting Republicans were Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Kennedy of Louisiana.

Well ... McCain!

Perhaps mortality focused his energies and his resolve, and he came through like he said he would. Perhaps he didn't want a legacy of killing health care for millions as he approaches his own battle with an aggressive brain cancer.

“I’ve stated time and time again that one of the major failures of Obamacare was that it was rammed through Congress by Democrats on a strict party-line basis without a single Republican vote,” he said in a statement explaining his vote. “We should not make the mistakes of the past.”

Two votes were called just after midnight. The first was a Democratic motion to refer the "skinny repeal" back to committee. It failed. The second vote was to pass the "skinny repeal." If you were watching, you know that the second vote prompted a full-court press by Republican brass on Senator John McCain.

McCain was seated next to Sen. Lindsay Graham who had derided the "skinny repeal" earlier in the day as a fraud but who had decided to vote for it anyway because he thought he had a promise from House Speaker Paul Ryan that it would never become law. Hell of a way to govern: "I'm voting for this law because I know it'll never become law."

Lisa Murkowski, one of the three no votes, approached McCain who smiled up at her and gave her a thumbs-down. Susan Collins joined the conversation. All three no votes were now talking.

From the well of the chamber, Majority Leader McConnell dispatched the other Arizona senator Jeff Flake to lobby McCain. McCain wouldn't look at him and continued talking to Murkowski and Collins.

According to reporter Ed O'Keefe, "That left Flake, one of the most polite members of the Senate, leaning into the conversation uncomfortably with a pained look on his face, as if he had to tell his father that he had run over the family dog with his car."

Seeing that Flake was getting nowhere, Vice President Mike Pence joined the conversation, and for 21 minutes he cajoled McCain, Murkowski, and Collins until he was pulled away for a phone call from the White House.

At 1:10 a.m. McCain crossed the Senate chamber and talked to Chuck Schumer and other Democrats. Sen. Dianne Feinstein gave him a big hug. As the vote on passage began, McCain was again off the floor talking to V.P. Pence, but he returned at 1:29 a.m. and delivered his no vote to the clerk.

There were audible gasps in the chamber.

Wonder how his best friend Lindsay Graham feels this morning, having witnessed an actual act of courage last night.

More Cracks in the Norquist Dam

It appeared that Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss was the first to turn apostate about the Grover Norquist no-tax pledge that he himself, Saxby Chambliss, had previously signed. Then yesterday Republican Senator Lindsay Graham publicly waffled on a Sunday morning Bloviators' Show. (So did Republican Rep. Peter King, on Meet the Press, and John McCain, on Fox News Sunday.)

Actually, none of those guys were the first to crack. Republican Senator Tom Coburn, way back in July, wrote an op-ed published in the NYTimes that complained about Norquist’s “tortured definition of tax purity” while concluding that the Norquist pledge is now irrelevant.

More amazing ... the sudden defection of Arizona's newest Republican Senator Jeff Flake, than which there is no more conservative individual in Congress (Flake voted with Virginia Foxx to deny federal relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina). During a candidate debate this year, Flake actually denied having ever signed the Norquist pledge, though he most certainly did. “The only pledge I’d sign [now] is a pledge to sign no more pledges,” Flake said, which was his way of saying, "Don't count on me, Grover."

We knew Norquist's grip on Republican gonads was really doomed when we heard Bill Kristol on Fox News Sunday say on November 11th:

"It won't kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires. It really won't, I don't think. I don't really understand why Republicans don't take Obama's offer. Really? The Republican Party is going to fall on its sword to defend a bunch of millionaires, half of whom voted Democratic and half of whom live in Hollywood and are hostile?"

Under these circumstances, what's a Tea Partier to do? More to the point, what will Grover Norquist order them to do?