Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is reportedly rescinding his offer to give President Donald Trump big money for his stupid border wall. The problem is, the cat is already out of the bag. Having once shown a willingness to fork over billions for a senseless boondoggle that is supposed to be paid for by the Mexican government, everyone knows that Schumer will cave on this issue in the future. Taking back his offer makes him look ridiculous.
Overall, I understand why Schumer decided to take the CHIP money and reopen the government for three weeks, but he’s been off his game during this whole shutdown business. In Middle East terms, money for the stupid border wall should have been the Jerusalem of these negotiations, best left for last after everything else was adequately negotiated. In the meantime, every request for money should have been met with mocking derision and a suggestion that Trump telephone Mexico City if he wanted an appropriation.
In the end, I suppose wasting tens of billions of dollars on an ineffective and senseless racist symbol that can be seen from space could be worth it. If this country can now be counted among the real shitholes on this planet, then maybe we could sully ourselves with such a deal without anyone forming a lower opinion of us. The price would have to right, though, wouldn’t it?
It couldn’t be just to release some hostages that the Republicans (most of them, anyway) don’t really want to keep.
Now if Schumer started out saying that the Consumer Financial Protection Agency needs to be funded or there’s no wall, that might almost be something slightly above shameful capitulation. As things actually are, the Democrats are playing this scared. They have a big political lead and they don’t want to blow it in the fourth quarter.
And, I get that. They absolutely cannot pull an Atlanta Falcons on these midterm elections, and their leadership is responsible for not letting that happen. That doesn’t mean they’ve played their cards right here though, because it’s not the tactical retreat that is the problem. It’s the overall strategy that concerns me. It might be intimidating when a major political party holds children’s health hostage since it shows they have absolutely no limits and no moral compass whatsoever, but that kind of aggression must be met in kind. Instead of asking for more, Schumer was loading offers on Trump’s plate only to have them pocketed and rebuffed.
He needs to do better.
Wasn’t this the opening you’ve been talking about for years? A political moment when the less-spittle-flecked Republicans in the Congress would need to rely upon Democratic support to keep government working? That was supposed to sideline the far-far-far Right and break the fever, no?
This is a process. There are a bunch of issues on the table, including defense spending, budget caps, DACA, health centers, the overall budget agreement, and an upcoming debt ceiling. So, a three-week reprieve buys time to work on these things in a bipartisan manner. With DACA it’s kind of clear that if it is going to happen in the House, it’s going to violate the Hastert Rule, but that may be the case for things that HAVE to pass, too.
And, if that happens, then you’ll see my prediction fulfilled.
Daca is a moral issue. But Miller and Trump along with the rest of these ugly bastards don’t see it that way. To them they are “”illegal”.That is wrong on its face and someone needs to shove it down their throats,
The problem is that even if congress passes a bill, Trump could easily veto it since it doesn’t do this or that.
Well they are illegal, but through no fault of their own. Someone who was brought here illegally at age two and grew up going to school in a major urban area and is now a young adult at 19 is functionally an American even though illegal by the book. Sending them back to a country they know nothing about even if they speak the language (which they may not) is cruel and unusual punishment. Down there they will be foreigners, Nortenos.
Okay. I’m putting my faith in you. Just don’t leave me hanging here, uncomfortable in my fanciest suit on a hilltop at dawn, waiting for the end times.
What? No sackcloth and ashes?
I sat around a table last night with a bunch of local Dems, all very much in the liberal wing of the Party. Ostensibly, we were there for our weekly gathering to discuss candidate recruitment, and the state of all the races in which we are trying to field competitive Democrats in a very red section of the state. And honestly, we are having a reasonable amount of success up to this point getting people to run who might actually be able to make a go of it in November. But I have to tell you, there was a pall that hung over the whole meeting, and it was the bitter aftertaste of what had just happened in the Senate. What we witnessed is the very thing we have identified over and over as the crux of what makes people reluctant to step out into the arena of candidacy and declare themselves as Democrats.
I am one of several of the more pragmatic in our group. Just as many people in our group wear their hearts on their sleeves, and their emotions rise and fall with every nuanced happening in Washington. And while we sat afterwards and sliced the cake in a million different ways as to how this might play out in the long run, there was still a palpable sense that we activists who are out here in the trenches, deep in heart of Trump country have, in a way, once again been shit on by our Party’s leadership with how this whole thing played out. The reality is, possibly just for a moment, it did take a little wind out of our sails. Now, in the long run, it might not amount to a hill of beans. But for now, to a lot of us sitting aroung that table, it feels like the leadership of our party just tossed another few pounds in an already heavy knapsack that we in the base have been carrying for them for a very long time.
I am still feeling a bit of frustration. And it is not just at the national leadership. We are having some of the same issues on the state level. It seems as if the headwinds just never let up.
I hear you, brother.
It’s aggravating. But I do think a lot of people are overreacting. Or, at least, they’re focused on the wrong things.
Yep. That’s what I told the wife, after she hit me with “Well, the Dems caved again”, as I walked through the door after work.
this Dems caved nonsense is all over and it drives me nuts, we got 6 years & 1 less hostage for 3 weeks seems good seeing we’re in the minority
Was it a hostage the GOP was actually going to shoot? I’m not particularly deflated because you cant go lower than no faith in your “leadership” but for a lot of activists and actual dreamers the message is clear.
Whether the GOP is willing to deport you or not, the Dems cant stop it. Thats what losing gets you in our shitty non parliamentary system.
ABC and CBS and NBC pushing this hard as well as FOX (who I expected anyhow), maybe harder than FOX.
Speaking of which, did you see tonight’s “debate” on WMAQ channel 5?
Despite the phony debate, actually just a series on non-identical questions from the moderator, I got to size up the candidates. I was quite impressed with Pritzker despite my reservations about him being a billionaire. It was funny seeing Kennedy attacking Pritzker for being rich. My wife isn’t an issues person, but she said,”I don’t like that old guy. Something’s wrong about him”, speaking of Kennedy. Biss was a weaselly snake. He reminds me of Paul Ryan. I loved it when he attacked Pritzker for being in bed with Madigan and P. shot back, “You’re the only one on this stage that voted for him to be Speaker!” The downstate guy was “Meh! Better than Rauner.” Tio Hardiman’s heart is in the right place but it was a major faux pas to think that DACA is about deporting kids born in the USA. Not ready for the big leagues. And where did they find that clown that wants to split Illinois into three states and legalize morphine and cocaine? Is he really on the ballot? Shades of Trump!
no I missed it, hopefully I can find it on youtube
I had a feeling this was going to be the first real test for, lack of the better term, the Resistance. It is a situation incompatible with black/white, up/down, won/lost thinking. Any result is going to months to play out.
It doesn’t help that, especially on the internet, there a lot of conservative wolves in liberal clothing with “Schumer Failed US!!!!” rants/comments ready to fire off in hopes of demotivating progressives. It has worked before.
We have completely new, energetic, liberal and creative leadership on the state level. They have been polling to find out the most attractive and compelling message for Colorado. In one way or another people are saying “Stand for something.”
We do understand that the Democrats haven’t much leverage in Congress. We are hoping to let them know this swing state will not swing Republican.
Finally, I have never been impressed with Schumer, and now that I’ve watched him more closely, I am even less so.
All I know is whoever is in charge of Colorado’s social media should be promoted to teach other states and Dems.
The new chair is Morgan Carroll. She has recruited some top people to work on the party’s website, digital interactions, message development, recruitment of candidates, etc. She went on a listening tour to all the rural counties. When she visited our county we were tossed from our meeting place because it was closing and all moved to a brew pub to continue our discussion. I cannot over state how impressed I am with her.
I love it.
Colorado Democrats React to Jeff Sessions’ Weed Policy With Surprisingly Good Tweets
This is a person who “gets” social media. I hope she goes far.
Our party chair is a former Pharma lobbyist. Talk about learning absolutely nothing from the last election…
If all you look at is the bargaining it’s problematical, but the optics are that even going that far was not good enough, works that way.
Trump has an established pattern of negotiating a deal, then after the deal is arrived at, oopsie now he wants more – after people have gotten invested in the work of reaching the original deal. The way to counter that bullshit is to reciprocate by pulling the same shit.
Confrontational maybe is good for energizing the activists, but maybe reasonable could be more helpful to red state people like McCaskill, Heitkamp, Donnelly next November.
I was with you until you started talking about placating the Dino’s. Something about that sticks in my craw.
We could just replace those three with republicans, then we wouldn’t ever have to worry about placating them.
In which case we also would need not worry about converting Majority Leader McConnell into Minority Leader McConnell, or converting Committee Chairman Grassley into Ranking Member Grassley.
But we’d no longer have those pesky DINOS to stab us in the back, amirite?
Might be nice to replace them with democrats. Novel idea.
Which alternate universe is it that that happens?
They need to be primaried. But maybe Shumer told them to vote yes, for some reason.
To protect them. Their votes were not needed given four republicans crossed the line. You primary them and hope what happens?
Perhaps but two points. First. this was a moral vote for those two issues and they are both very popular programs. So what do you need to stand up and vote for the moral right? Seems to me to be no different than a republican. And two, all four of them are projected by CNN to flip this year. I suppose I could add that by voting as they did they got them closer to cloture. So given the nature of the vote, we needed them. But it is possible Shumer let them go.
It is likely too late to primary them. I do understand the notion of protecting a seat but this was not the time, IMO. Some courage is needed to be a senator. Maybe I’m too invested in those programs.
You do know that Doug Jones has voted for the Trump position every single time so far, right? And I thought he won that seat thanks to black women. I was told he was courageous. Doesn’t seem so to me.
Holy shit! 100% WTF? That sell out piece of…. wait. What? He’s only had three votes? One was 81-18 and the other was like 64-30 something? So too small a sample size and not really #withtrump. Wake me when he votes against the caucus when it counts.
There you go, getting in the way of the narrative with actual facts. In the case of Jones, has even had time to get his office cactus unpacked?
This was an important issue. The five asses who refused to see this let us down. Sorry but that’s the way it is, you either stand up for the clear moral issue or you put on the alt right hat and say well, I live in a red state and morality doesn’t count here.
He’s had more than 3 votes. But go ahead and make excuses for him.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/senator-reportedly-had-to-be-talked-out-of-retiring.htm
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Too bad. His seat is projected to flip per CNN. But he is a resourceful guy. Winning the senate looks pretty hard at the moment.
They’re already democrats.
Dino, yes
If you kept them, and flipped four seats, you’d have a democratic majority in the senate.
Yes you would.
I believe there is a place where the name democrat means shit, thats what this is to me. Sorry
This was a great post. Shummer got played. But the game is still in play.
I only want to say that the fucking wall may be the worst thing of all. Trump wants a monument of hate for the whole world to see and especially his Very White Supremacist Nazi friends. Another monument to stand beside all the other confederate statues and flags we see all the time. What is wrong with us ?
Looks like Josh Marshall has a pep talk for those us feeling a little down.
I understand that this is a process. But that whole narrative that was being woven by the media and a lot of Democrats was a bit disheartening.
You can find similar points at LGM.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/01/the-deal-2
Thanks. Been sifting through a lot of different things on this today, and am beginning to get a better take on how I really feel about all this.
Exactly!
Do we actually know that’s how it went down? If he got CHIP funded permanently and a permanent solution to DACA wouldn’t that be enough to give him a little money for the wall that we all know will never actually be built?
Schumer just spoke for the cameras. Basically, any future deal will not include funding for the wall and all negotiations will start from zero.
I think you are being too hard on Schumer. Right now he is dealing with an early onset Russian racist who can’t keep one idea in his head for five minutes, and a bunch of racist nihilists who want to burn the whole government down and replace it with a white rich mans paradise, where women and POC are never seen. `My word is my bond’ is a concept foreign to them.
In any negotiation when one side rejects an offer, every facet of that offer is no longer on the table. Schumer is just stating that very simple principle.
He has a tough job.
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What? You mean he can’t see the future? Shiiiit. That’s his job. He came out ok. This is a long game. I’m glad he pulled back funding for the wall. I hate that Trump and co are taking a victory lap.
I see McCaskill says we need bi partisanship on defense spending, guess she means she’d vote yes on that too. Fair warning.
Some major defense contractors in Missouri and people vote for their jobs.
That’s a point often overlooked, but an important one nonetheless. Lived through that on at least one personnel search committee. I’ve actually experienced someone reject an offer, then come back a few days later asking if that offer was still good. Uh, yeah….no. At that point, the stock phrase is “we’ve decided to move in a different direction, but thank you for inquiry.”
I read a lot of different blogs and the responses to the news of Schumer’s decision. Some were tentative, weighing the results, while others flew off into the predictable rage, wailing about caving and giving in and losing ground in the shutdown.
I don’t see the decision Schumer made as a cave in, as the shitdown ended and CHIP was protected and a deadline was set. It’s up to the Dems to get their shit together and have some structure in this three week period.
I want to see the Democrats stand together from now on, like they did with votes on the ACA and tax reform. I want to see a couple of smart, clear commercials on the air that spell out the need for DACA and what the Democrats want for the country. We send millions of dollars in support of our party, so spend some of it to clarify what we believe in.
It’s time to dig in and make solid plans for our democracy to survive.
I am not a fan of ads (frankly, I rarely see them, I mainly use my tv for streaming), but in this case I can see how some well made (that’s the hard part) ads could really help. Not really attack ads, but ads explaining dreamers, and bluntly stating how unfair their situation is.
Personally I think deporting them is unamerican. Just Trump removing their protection was unamerican. But with the election of Trump my belief in the deep down belief in fairness by the average American has been shaken. Do they even have a `better nature’ to appeal to?
We will find out, because (in my opinion) this is a canary in the coal mine issue. If we fail on this, not one of us is safe.
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We need to engage them. I am still angry with the Democrats for abandoning the field summer of 2009, giving the Republicans a chance to set the tone and language of the discussion, get mileage out of death panel talk and other shabby, inaccurate messages, etc
I live in an area with a large Hispanic population. How do we get them to register and vote if we don’t go to the mat for DACA? They already tell us that how they vote doesn’t matter. Not true, especially in a swing state, but that’s their feeling.
Frankly, if by now Hispanic Americans have to be convinced to vote, particularly in a state like Colorado, then there is nothing you can say to them.
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You do understand ICE under Obama deported more people than Bush, right? Or that all the information Dreamers submitted to the government is now being used against them? And then you wonder why they might be as cynical as can be.
They’ve been excluded and demeaned for generations.
I don’t think your comment is helpful, let alone well informed.
Sadly, I think the odds of the D’s getting their “shit together” are probably low.
Senate D’s are saddled with a a shithole caucus that won’t go to the mat for DACA and/or have too many federal workers who will get steamed about not getting a paycheck.
Despite what he’s said previously, I doubt Trump signs anything with DACA in it, regardless of the consequences- he’s not going to go against his racist base as impeachment and/or prosecution gets nearer and nearer..
Chuck Schumer’s main focus is, and always will be, about raising money and he’s going to be very reluctant to take any risks. My guess is that he’d be more than happy with to keep the current status quo up through November given the current margins Democrats have.
The message of the day should have been that CHIP had been saved from the Republicans. Instead it was all about a tactical retreat. Does our team know how to write a press release? Do they even distribute talking points? It should have been that the GOP blinked on trying to kill childrens’ healthcare, and on top of that, now we’re in the position we wanted to be in to save DACA in three weeks now that they can’t hold children’ healthcare hostage.
No and no. Obama’s operation could do it, but he was focused on being the adult and president for everyone which is obviously understandable. The last time regular dems did it right is when the netroots did it for them.
I don’t understand your position on this, BooMan.
When negotiating a deal, if you put something on the table as part of that deal, and then the deal doesn’t happen, there is no obligation for that to be part of any deal going forward.
If Trump wanted funding for the wall, he shouldn’t have betrayed everyone that was negotiating with him.
Doesn’t work that way. Imagine if the Palestinians ever offered to let Israel have all of Jerusalem and then later on insisted that they absolutely could never make that concession. That’s what Schumer did.
Isn’t it more like the Palestinians offer Jerusalem in exchange for the West Bank, Israel says “sure” then comes back and says “nah?” In that case, pulling Jerusalem off the table is a perfectly cromulent response.
No, it’s not like that at all.
So in your Israel analogy, what is DACA? As I understand the negotiations, DACA was part of the deal. Once DACA was gone, why keep the wall on the table?
DACA is a hostage the Republicans don’t want because they do not want to deport these people and deal with the news stories. So, this is like Israel dangling something they were always going to give the Palestinians in the end and asking for something the Palestinians consider precious.
Same with CHIP actually. These are false hostages being offered for real money.
The best you can say is that the GOP is so dysfunctional that they might kill the hostages through simple ineptitude, like a stubborn resistance to violating the Hastert Rule or leadership that won’t violate it out of fear of being deposed.
But that’s the test. That’s what the Dems have to test.
Ok. What’s wrong with tossing the crazy shit out there, if you know they aren’t going to bite, then pull it back when they don’t bite. I don’t get what was lost here. You’ve proven that republicans won’t resolve DACA even if you promise them the stupid wall, and you’ve got CHIP funded for six years.
Are they really sticking with a rule named for a child molester? You’d think they would at least come up with a better name. But then they stuck with creepy Roy Moore, although a 30 year old man getting it on with a 14 year old girl is actually legal in Alabama and I think, Kentucky. At the other extreme here in Illinois, a 19 year old caught in the back seat of a car with his 17 year old girl friend has to register as a sex offender just like creepy Hastert.
If I were to describe this political battle with a sports analogy, it would be tennis.
Democrats won the first set. There were a few unforced errors, but the CHIP hostage is off the table and very little was given up to get it. That win is banked. It can’t be reversed.
Democrats need to stay on serve in the second set now, break the Republicans and get DACA passed. Or hammer the bejeezus out of the GOP for not doing a thing that 90% of the voting public wants.
The match isn’t over. Stay focused and make the Republicans run.
Living and working in the Northern VA suburbs and exurbs of DC, I’ve been shocked by the number of folks who seem to accept the Republican talking points. You know, “the Dems made our military work without pay in order to fight for illegal immigrants, etc.”
The people who’ve been saying this are not rabid partisans. Most would probably identify themselves as independents. Of course, many are government employees who resent the hassle. They take pride in their jobs and want to go to work. I know for a fact that many of them did not vote for Mr. Trump.
Now, my evidence is anecdotal. These are the same areas where Democrats swept the elections for our General Assembly in November. I’m also aware that nationwide polling shows sympathy for the DACA kids, and a rejection of Republicans in generic races. So maybe I’m worrying without reason.
Nevertheless, I’m really troubled by the messaging, or lack thereof, that I’ve seen from the Democrats. I think the Republicans won this round, at least around here.
I hope, in a few weeks, that my comments here will look silly. The long game is to win in November, and to take the White House in 2020. No pressure, Democrats, but the fate of the Free World is in your hands.
Same as they did the summer after the ACA passed.
How?
How?
How?
No garment-rending, salt-sniffing, fainting couch-landing Dem blog I read has answered that question.
How could Schumer have done better?
How can Schumer get a veto proof majority in the House and Senate for DACA? With the eternal bad faith negotiator?
Fucking crickets, except reaching for the “Dems in Disarray!” narrative.
This is just Green Lanternism. As has been the majority of the Dem reaction. Millions will not march for DACA. It won’t happen. This is a conservative, Christian-fascist, white supremacist country. Expecting a voter majority to rally for Dreamers is a pipe dream.
2018 is when the GOP goes back to “Nigger, Nigger, Nigger.”
Start with the idea that the wall in not the easiest thing to give away but the very last damn thing that you’ll give away. That’s for starters.
Green Lanternism is when naive lefties imagine that, though an act of political will, Democrats can summon up extra votes for the Public Option.
Green Lanternism is also when naive lefties are horrified that, though an act of political will, Republicans summoned up extra votes for the Racist Wall.
Here is an example of how off his game Chuck Schumer is. /s
By tradition and Senate norms, only the Majority Leader ever calls for a vote on a bill. But this is merely a norm, not an actual rule.
So, after the big vote, with the chamber emptying out, Claire McCaskill called for unanimous consent for a vote on a bill to pay the military during a shutdown, which McConnell of course promptly objected to. Thus McConnell being pwned into ownership of stopping military paychecks.
This was followed by similar moves by Bill Nelson and Jon Tester – all of these red state senators who could use some good soundbites for their campaigns next autumn.
Yeah, that Schumer, really off his game.
I disagreed with you on the other post about not being impressed with Schumer regarding the wall, but I don’t disagree with this post’s overall message. I square that with the fact that in my mind we shouldn’t be mad about Schumer’s wall offer — never agreed to any appropriations, also — but the not having a plan B ready when Trump’s Nazi advisors pocketed the concession and swatted away the compromise that was made. Indeed, Schumer and Pelosi already negotiated the terms of a deal months ago which Miller proceeded to trash. This should have given a hint at the contours of the battle. Schumer went to war with the shutdown, but then his own battlements and troops weren’t ready with a unifying line of attack. It seemed to me that he was “ready” to shutdown thinking Trump took the deal they had in hand when really the stones to actually shut it down came in the heat of the moment. Then there was no plan.
What would have been your plan? All things considered, since he failed to plan (based on what we know) appropriately, I think he made out “ok” in that much leverage hasn’t really been lost. But the problem was not planning an alternative when Trump pulled back.
I really don’t know how one goes about negotiating this stuff but I have my own idea what one needs to be careful about, and that is the wall.
Did Trump ever ask for a specific sum of money for the wall? It could be anywhere up to twenty billion. Let him tell the world what it takes to build the thing and why Mexico isn’t paying for it. And outside of the right wing who really wants it? Chip and Daca OTOH are popular programs. So fix those programs Donald and we will vote for the CR. Let him plead a bit and then ask for something else. I know I am hard over on this wall, but to my mind he has to plead for it and I have to get a lot. You cave early on this and you lose. Shumer lost. As it turned out there is still another day to play. So not all that bad.
The preparations of the candidates (including the selections of primary challengers of weak Democrat, election protection, and GOTV operations) and the morale of the people on the ground doing it are what should blowtorch the motivation of the Congressmen (or scare the shit out of them). The behavior of the members of Congress that has litte rationale motive except inertia should from this moment stop being the decision-maker of the people working at the grassroots. Your motivation no longer depends on the existing government. If it is a true Resistance, it depends on what you can build at the local level to deliver the winning number of votes for your candidate and protect it from anyone who doesn’t want that candidate to take office. The motivation of local voters depends on you guys and gals, not the lead weights (at best) in Washington. It also depends on the challengers you put up in red districts and states and the ability to organize locally without being depend on or waiting for the Washington or state capital institutions to act or accept what comes from those as what get done when it doesn’t make sense for your locality. This year a coalition stands up all over this country — no exclusion for supporting your candidate. No division on who, what policy platform, where the winning number of votes are going come from, who is committed to providing the manpower to turn out those vote.
Ignore Congress from here on out.
Ah, but TarHeelDem, Rahm Emanuel proved to me that the DCCC exists to shut down grass roots initiatives. The Democratic Party is a top down dictatorship, not a democracy. DWS and Donna Brazile reinforced this.
Which is why I am so excited about the clean sweep of party leadership in Colorado. I also support organizations focused on grass roots action: DFA, various environmental organizations, Indivisible, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, along with local and regional groups.
I resigned from NARAL when they endorsed Clinton over Sanders as if Bernie was anti-abortion.
I support them locally, where their rep is very sharp and active. But I am not a donor. I also quit Emily’s List for the reason you cite.
At least Emily’s List is about backing women just because they are women. But NARAL is supposed to be about abortion and should not endorse anyone if both candidates are pro-choice.
No argument here.
My feeling is that Schumer should have started threatening not to vote for the Republican budgets when Republicans crammed the tax scam through using reconciliation. It would have been proportional- if you don’t need our votes now, then you won’t need our votes at budget or debt ceiling time… And in fact, the Republicans did choose to use their ONE reconciliation where they could have passed a budget with a simple majority to cram through an unpopular (and unwise) tax cut for corporations and their billionaire funders.
The government shutdown is always difficult politics- it didn’t work out that well when the Republicans did it and this is a particularly difficult year for Democrats to pull it off, because of the fluke of having so many red-state Democratic Senators up for re-election this cycle. But if you could have tied it to DACA, CHP, and the Tax scam, than at least you could have given them a few more talking points on issues that probably could help them in their states.
I think the tax bill is very popular with the MSM touting it as bringing jobs and prosperity and tax cuts for practically everyone. They won’t realize the truth until April 2019 when it will be too late.