This week: Democrats promising a showdown on "x"

If Democrats want to be taken seriously on the wall, maybe they should consider at least finally passing the rest of president Trump's nominees for secretaries.  

RollCall says Democrats are promising a showdown on president Trump's border wall legislation.  But they are creating a showdown on his appointments, a showdown on immigration, a showdown on Russia.  The Democrats should rename themselves the Showdown Party.  Yes they are slowing down president Trump's agenda.  The cost is their future electoral victories.

Senate Democrats are warning Republicans of a shutdown showdown if President Donald Trump insists on including funding for a wall along the Mexican border in April’s government funding bill.

“We believe it would be inappropriate to insist on the inclusion of such funding in a must-pass appropriations bill that is needed for the Republican majority in control of the Congress to avert a government shutdown so early in President Trump’s Administration,” the Senate Democratic leadership team, along with Appropriations ranking Democrat Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, wrote in a letter to be circulated Monday.

The letter was directed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., but the clear audience was the Trump administration and the new president himself.

The problem with opposing everything, is that they have telegraphed  their entire agenda and can therefore be manipulated if president Trump is smart about it.  The other problem for Democrats is that by already opposing everything, they've given up all bargaining power.  The threat is hollow.  Everyone knows they are going to throw up roadblocks.  I they hope to get any measure of input they have to use the threat as a bargaining chip.  They continue to show that they cannot be bargained with and therefore the GOP doesn't need to bother trying.  As soon as the GOP realizes that, they could potentially get a lot done.

Democrats: the party of No.

Own it Democrats. You've stood as a solid (but failing) blue line against every president Trump nominee, often with nothing other than Trump as the reason. The motivation is as crystal clear as the line in the sand itself.  Consequences-be-damned Democrats will rue this approach when the time comes, be that 2018, 2020 or 2024.  They've set a precedent that blanket opposition is acceptable.  When the time comes, it will be returned in kind and they will only have themselves to blame. What comes around goes around.

...nearly all of Trump’s nominees are running into a brick wall with the party of the donkey.

And for what reason? Trump is not appointing a band of brigands with criminal records or friends and donors with no experience in their respective fields. What was the opposition to Mnuchin? The man spent a lifetime working in the financial sector and dealing with the economy. One might suspect that this is a rap sheet which would be desirable at Treasury. The other nominees follow a similar pattern. No, the Democrats are only opposing these nominees because the perspective they bring to the job is in line with the winner of the presidential election. While there has been some sporadic resistance by Republicans to a few Democratic nominees in the past, we’ve never seen anything like this.

Now liberals might say the GOP was previously the party of 'no'.  Maybe to an extent there's a little bit of truth to that, but not to the extent it was portrayed in the media and not nearly to the extent Democrats are doing now out of pure petulance.

Note to Senate Republicans, if you don't have a spine yet, grow one (fast).  This ain't little league ball as much as you might want to pretend it still is. We need senators with spine, now especially.

Democrats: anything but our record!

From outside spending, to John Boehner, blame Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Tea Partiers are crazy and jobs saved, the Democrats have thrown so many red herrings out there for public consumption that it's starting to look like a Gulf Oil Spill but in fish.

It's the ultimate Wizard of Oz 'don't look behind the curtain' approach to the election. Whether it is born of panic or not doesn't matter because it doesn't seem to be working. Misdirection is an indicator that Democrats have been more than unwilling to campaign on what they've done for the last two years. That shows a lack of confidence in their own agenda. Perhaps even a lack of faith. So really, why do they want to retain power? It must be for other reasons. Either personal or dogmatic, doing what was best for American economic malaise was not what was (or is) on their minds.

But that's what's on the public's minds. And that is why this will be a wave election. Not 40 seats in Congress. Likely north of 60. And possibly a Senate takeover as well. It's not even about a love of the GOP. It's about a voter lack of faith in those who have a lack of faith in their own ideas. It's about sharing that lack of faith in their approach.

The GOP may be the party of 'no' in Democrat eyes but right now that meshes well with the will of the people - Americans today are a people of 'no'. If the Democrats are thinking 'anything but our record', Americans are agreeing - anything but your record.

The Next Set of Democrat Villians? Democrats.

Wait for it.  Republicans having been villified in the mainstream media and by Democrats as the party of 'No!' (as I've said before it's not strong enough.  they should embrace the label of the party of 'HELL NO!'), will experience a temporary reprieve as the Democrats, running out of people to paint as villains, will for a while, turn on Democrats.