The thing is, will he vote for both or only for one of the two competing proposals?
The former is “so what”, the latter would be a true statement.
My guess is Door #1.
As I replied elsewhere, Gardner breaking is a dog biting man story; when Thune and Portman cross over then we are truly in popcorn time.
Prediction: As with the resolution to reimpose the sanctions on the Russian oligarch’s companies, the final vote on the “clean” CR will be 58-42. Two votes short of what is required to advance, so that no single GOP senator could be tagged with being the “deciding” vote to keep the government closed.
On the other hand, with the President having folded on the SOTU we may get some compromise in the next week or so.
Gardner is widely respected in the GOP for his political abilities. It is why he was selected to run the RNSC in 2018.
Gardner is breaking because he has access to, and understands the polling on the shutdown. It is causing republican inclined independents, who see the GOP as the “grown-up party” to be repelled by the GOP. That it is for a wall that is less popular than Trump is the kiss of death.
Gardner knows that his neck is on the line. He toed Trump’s line in 2016-2018, that he is breaking now should be a 'break the glass" sign to the GOP.
If the number who break reaches 4 (I would expect Murkowski to vote yes on a clean bill) so that bill will actually pass, it will substantially up the pressure on those running in 2020 (think Earnst, Tillis, McSalley, Purdue, Collins, even John Coryn)
I’m sure all the GOP will vote for one that includes wall funding. Why would they not? They don’t give a shit that wall isn’t really needed nor that amount isn’t probably near enough with typical govmint over runs.
NPR reported this morning sources close to Trump say he has told staff to prepare for the shutdown to last another 3 months.
Confirmation he’s deluded. Three more months of this will see riots in the streets, a major downward market adjustment and bankruptcy filings that are off the charts.
Oh, I am certain you are right.
But it would be interesting if a couple of them actually took the opportunity, knowing both are pretty much doomed, to set a mark by only voting for the Dem one. It would take much more spine than just going for the cheap and easy way out.
Okay…spine, Gooper… I answered my own question there.
Never mind.
And it will also see Trump’s approval and that of the GOP fall below 30%. There is no way that Trump’s hanger ons, etc will allow that to happen. There will be an intervention by those who control Trump (Alderson, Rupurt, Putin, MBS) to get him to accept a face saving way out, that is actually a surrender.
Trump is all bluff, and having gone into this shutdown with no plan, the reality is that the short staffed White House is only now trying to figure out what is coming, in part so they can try to plan for the incoming fire, but also to be able to show Trump the things that are coming which will turn off his base voters when they too get shafted.
Yeah really, it will make the Hoover’s depression like like a mild down turn. I’m guessing this might be all a part of Putin’s plan. Question is will Republicans wake up in time to stop it or at least keep it from bringing us down to a level Russia can fuck us over in some way more than just financially!
So they’re raking the West Wing?
Trump is likely on the verge of lashing out in a very detrimental fashion. He’s been exposed to the nation as a fraud. All hat and no cattle. But I think there is a danger in that. His supporters are a cult, and they’re heavily invested in him maintaining the aura of power and invincibility they thought they voted for. Consequently this comeuppance for him will likewise be felt as a comeuppance for his base. His failure to perform as expected will translate as a failure on their part to also perform, in the voting booth two years ago. They’re all one big fail. And their coming to terms with that will be fraught with the potential for a lot of problems.
Gosh, I wonder why he’s doing this when he’s voted in lockstep with McConnell up until this year. He must have had an authentic change-of-heart, come-to-Jesus moment … or something …
Coward. Coward to flip to save his own skin, and coward not to vote against Kavanaugh when it would have made a difference. Conniving invertebrate.
Ever notice it’s ALWAYS the same Senate GOPers who do this bull crap, acting the rebel for a few minutes, but there’s almost NEVER quite enough to constitute a block (McCain was the last to do this with actual effect, over a year ago, and even then the effect lasted like a week and then pffft even McCain folded), and even if the blockade gets a bunch of press and Sunday Show coverage it never actually manages to sustain anything.
Pelosi gets the big cred and pub for vote counting, but the utterly amoral McConnell is just as good at it in his own context, and Mange Dog McConnell rather routinely follows this management policy of allowing the likes of Gardner and Collins room to express phony dissent without ever having any actual impact on a vote that ultimately matters.
Even Romney, the noisiest of the faux-never-trumpers, walks to the beat of the McConnell drums.
And why is that?
So glad you inquired.
Romney is just as compromised as the rest of these shit heels with dirty rubles.
It’s easy to make your people walk the line when you all have the same stench lathered into the fabric of your miserable existence.
Exactly. The vulnerables send out an SOS (“Save Our Seats”) and McConnell decides which ones will be allowed to defect and dissemble (sorry, “vote their consciences”) on each issue.
Come on now:
BUILD THE WALL AND CRIME WILL FALL!!!
Here in Colorado we are already planning how we’ll make Gardner a 1-term Senator.
From now on, ® next to a politician’s name means “Russian.”