Wondering on Wednesday (v84)

It's Wednesday. You know what that means.

Let's start with Steve Bannon. Do you wonder what he's thinking, now that he's been booted from the National Security Council's Principals Committee by Donald Trump, or by HR McMaster, or by Jared Kushner - who even knows who actually pulled the strings, since Bannon has been considered by some as the string puller, the man behind the Big Boy desk as it were. Now, he's allegedly assigned to "working on health care" which seems like a demotion. I mean, national security plus everything else, to dealing with the petulant children in the House? Egads. I'd have skipped a press conference too, if I were him.  

And about those petulant children in the House, what on earth are we to think about them? Republicans fighting against Republicans, and Republicans fighting against the President, and the President fighting against Republicans. I wonder how they can possibly have the strength to fight Obamacare?

Yes, the sort of Repealish and Replacey bill that Speaker Paul Ryan tried to cram down everyone's throats in 17 days, with no success other than pitting R against R? We were told at the time that the best chance for fixing the failing health care plan was lost, and we were told by Trump that now we just had to wait for Obamacare to die and the Democrats, who owned the failure, according to Trump, to come crawling to him for help to save the darn thing.

I didn't wonder much last month when all of this played out which part of it was not true; I mean, the only thing we never really have to wonder about is whether Trump or anyone in his administration is lying. Last month, I was enjoying too much the Rs being at each others throats and all - but I should have been wondering.

For we now know that the part that was untrue was the part about, well, all of it.

Because Steve Bannon was too busy to attend a press conference - the only one he's missed, I read somewhere,  because he was "working on healthcare" and trying to salvage the mess that Paul Ryan got them into - and that Paul Ryan may not be able to get them out of.

Speaking with Norah O'Donnell, Ryan said this:

What I worry about, Norah, is if we don't do this then he'll just go work with Democrats to try to change Obamacare -- and that's hardly a conservative thing. If this Republican Congress allows the perfect to become the enemy of the good, I worry we'll push the president to working with Democrats. He's been suggesting that much.

Ah, there's nothing like the smell of House partisanship in the morning. Except maybe the stench emanating from the Senate, as they wring hands (wishing they were necks) over how, not if, Mitch McConnell's Republicans will confirm Neil Gorsuch as the next SCOTUS Associate Justice.

I mean, are the Dems desperately trying to snatch the title of the Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight from the Rs, or what?

1. Gorsuch the best we can hope for from Trump/Pence. It was his first shot, and picked because he is about as mainstream as we're going to see. If he has another chance (sadly, that's likely even if he only serves one term), each successive nominee will be more distasteful than the last. That much, no wondering is required.
2. Merrick Garland deserved a vote - that's absolutely true. It also has absolutely nothing to do with Gorsuch. The Republicans were jerks, but that's water over under the bridge, over the dam, and in the basement already.  When, I wonder, will the Dems learn that being as bad as the other guys is not a feather in their cap?
3. Donald Trump, his transition team members, cabinet members, family members and Mar-a-Lago members, his business partners and bankers and dentist and hair stylists  and Trump Tower lease holders may currently have, or may have had, interactions with Russia - but that has nothing to do with Gorsuch.
4. Even if Trump is impeached or quits or falls into the mouth of an alligator during one of his million rounds of golf, Gorsuch is a legitimate nominee.

The Dems would be fools not to find a way to get to 60 votes. McConnell would owe them - bigly - if they were to do this. And even if he never properly thanked them for helping him out, he would know,  and we would know, and the world would know, and that should be enough. 

If, on the other hand, they force McConnell's hand and he changes the rules, the Dems will have no one to blame but themselves.  And we will have no one to blame but them. 

No wondering about that, at all.