dagblog - Comments for "'Trump is starting to tear the GOP apart' (targeting Ryan as well as McConnell)"

Is there a strategy to Donald

artappraiser — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 21:41:33 +0000

In reply to 'Trump is starting to tear the GOP apart' (targeting Ryan as well as McConnell)

Is there a strategy to Donald Trump's attacks on Republican politicians?

David Smith @ The Guardian, Aug. 26 trying to answer that question, runs through a lot of stuff, so includes things one might have missed.

Adding a link to thread on

artappraiser — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 19:28:51 +0000

In reply to 'Trump is starting to tear the GOP apart' (targeting Ryan as well as McConnell)

Adding a link to thread on Trump throwing the Arpaio pardon into the RNC's face hours after they tried to fix some of the damage he did with the whole Charlottesville thing.

Very interesting E.J. Dionne

artappraiser — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 19:26:10 +0000

In reply to 'Trump is starting to tear the GOP apart' (targeting Ryan as well as McConnell)

Very interesting E.J. Dionne piece from May 31 about the think tank types, neo-conservatives et. al.:

The anti-Trump right is becoming a breed of its own

Oops he just realized he left

artappraiser — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 23:37:29 +0000

In reply to 'Trump is starting to tear the GOP apart' (targeting Ryan as well as McConnell)

Oops he just realized he left out Bob Corker! Pulls out magic primary twitter wand and shazzaam:

President Proves He’s Stable by Trying to Humiliate Key Senate Ally Over Twitter

By Eric Levitz @ NYmag.com, Aug. 25

More than a week later, Trump decided to rebut these allegations, by waking up and thinking about how he could humiliate Corker for wounding his ego.

Strange statement by Bob Corker considering that he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in '18. Tennessee not happy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017

Needed a flic/musical

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 11:08:38 +0000

In reply to 'Trump is starting to tear the GOP apart' (targeting Ryan as well as McConnell)

Needed a flic/musical accompaniment.

meanwhile Alexander Bolton @

artappraiser — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 04:58:43 +0000

In reply to Extensive analysis &

meanwhile Alexander Bolton @ The Hill is hearing only angst from GOP aides, strategists and former senators.

GOP taken aback by Trump’s verbal bombs

08/24/17 06:31 PM EDT

President Trump’s public fights with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other Republicans are just making it tougher to move his agenda, say GOP aides, strategists and former senators.

Republicans say the hard feelings between the White House and Senate leader will only complicate the task of passing tax reform, keeping the government funded and raising the debt ceiling — three top items on the fall agenda [....]

Extensive analysis &

artappraiser — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 04:50:39 +0000

In reply to 'Trump is starting to tear the GOP apart' (targeting Ryan as well as McConnell)

Extensive analysis & reporting tonite @ WaPo with leaks from "Congressional aides" and obviously tons of phone calls to sources like "a senior Republican" trying to cobble together what is really going on; recommended:

Trump distances himself from GOP lawmakers to deflect personal blame if agenda stalls

According to advisers, Trump is railing against Republicans because he thinks it will help protect him politically if the GOP loses the House. But Trump could face greater peril than a difficult 2020 election: a Democratic majority eager to pursue impeachment.

By Philip Rucker, Sean Sullivan and Mike DeBonis

some excerpts for a taste:

President Trump is strategically separating himself from Republicans in Congress, an extraordinary move to deflect blame if the GOP agenda continues to flounder.

Trump deepened the fissures in the party on Thursday when he accused the top two leaders on Capitol Hill of mismanaging a looming showdown over the nation’s borrowing authority. Republican lawmakers and aides responded to the president’s hostility with broadsides and warnings of their own.

Behind the scenes, some Republican staff members described a more functional relationship between aides and lawmakers on Capitol Hill and White House officials. But in public, Trump is waging war against lawmakers.

Ryan acknowledged discussions about attaching the debt issue to the veterans bill, but said the maneuver ultimately “wasn’t available to us.”

Several House aides expressed exasperation Thursday about Trump’s claim regarding that proposal. They called that a misrepresentation of what had actually happened: White House and congressional aides had informally discussed the possibility that the Senate could attach a debt-ceiling extension to a House-passed veterans bill in late July, but it was never clear that the Senate would act before the House was scheduled to break for the summer — and many conservative House Republicans had warned GOP leaders not to pursue the maneuver.

The House Freedom Caucus stands to play a pivotal role in the fall’s legislative drama. On one hand, the bloc of hard-liners has been among the most fervent backers of Trump’s agenda, and its top leader, Rep. Mark Meadows (N.C.), frequently consults with the president. On the other hand, the caucus and other conservatives have been reluctant to compromise on their principles to accomplish it — at least not without a fight.

On the debt limit, Democrats are taking a more hands-off approach, thinking the issue is entirely up to Republicans to resolve, given that in the past they called for spending reductions to be coupled with any debt-limit increases.

Some congressional aides are anticipating that Trump will hold a White House meeting with top House and Senate leaders shortly after lawmakers return from their recess.

If a meeting is held, it would be the first face-to-face exchange between Trump and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) since the president hosted a cocktail reception for top lawmakers in late January. The last time he saw Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in person was the day after that reception [....]

A second Republican, who has spoken with the president, said Thursday that Trump sees benefits from fighting GOP leaders but is not yet convinced that a showdown over a wall in September is necessary and is open to hearing options about how to proceed. The Republicans spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

Well It has always been my

artappraiser — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 02:12:25 +0000

In reply to There is "control" of the

Well It has always been my point that both parties are too big tent to have a unifying governing ideology. You need a brilliant centrist like Bill Clinton or Obama as president to get anything done? Hillary had those chops BUT then she could not ever shake the labelling as the bete noire, if she had won I dare say there would have been nearly as much chaos as now, because as you aptly point out the persona called Hillary is the one GOP rallying point to make it appear they are unified. And Trump would not have gone quietly into the night...

With Sen. Flake as the

artappraiser — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 02:05:11 +0000

In reply to I take a different message

With Sen. Flake as the standard bearer of anti-Trumpism, having a book out, basically proclaiming it in writing,I would think following how he's polling among AZ GOP through the fall would give a clue? There were more than a few reports out on how Trump met with primary challengers before the AZ rally. Then the rally ended with people leaving and not paying attention by the end. And those were the people who really wanted to see him.

Just checked the title of Flake's book: Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. Maybe I should read up on it more before I speak (but nooo I am not going to read the whole thing, not that interested. )

There is "control" of the

NCD — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 22:56:42 +0000

In reply to I take a different message

There is "control" of the Republican Party?

Now that they can't rally round Stop Obama or Crooked Hillary, and actually have to govern? With a malignant narcissistic wanna be Mango Mussolini Moron in the White House?