The problem for Graham and Co. is that while Democrats can live with the wall (even though it is a lousy idea), they can’t (and won’t) live with being blackmailed by Trump every time he wants something. If there is any way to paint them as having “given in” to the pressure, he effectively owns them.
Pelosi plays a far beter long game than Trump.
The Democrats will gladly trade wall funding for a path to citizenship for Dreamers. Mueller protection would be nice too, but I don’t think Dems back down for Mueller alone.
And remember, the Dems have more than once offered Trump additional wall funding for Dreamers and Trump has said ‘no’.
Oh yes he is. But there is nothing to negociate for. Mueller doesn’t need protection anymore. That cake is baked, and it’s coming out of the oven soon.
That is really what this is all about. Trump is frantically, desperately, feverishly clinging to his “base” because they are ALL he’s got. Those cheering crowds are his ego’s life raft. And they aren’t going to save him. He’s going down.
When the Dems offered Dreamer protection in exchange for wall funding, that was not during a government shutdown.
Right now, the most important thing is to finally kill, once and for all, the idea that shutting down the government can be used as a tool to get what one side wants. The Dreamers can be dealt with in negotiations after the government is opened.
I read this WaPo article over lunch today. I knew some of the history presented here (the El Paso portion), but I didn’t know the Nogales part.
Here’s a history of the US-Mexico border and walls/fences/barriers along the same.
Great point but have Chuck and Nancy communicated this message to the public?
Graham, McConnell, Drumpf
Actually, her favorite is Ghiradelli, originally a San Francisco company, but even that wouldn’t make her budge.
They’re folding it into discussion about the wall – “We’re not spending taxpayer dollars on a stupid ineffective wall, and we’re not going to allow the government to be held hostage to get it.”
They shouldn’t focus only on the shutdown principle, because that would allow Fox and Trump (same thing) to say the Dems don’t care that people are getting hurt, they only care about some abstract political principle.
So it’s not what is good for the country, not getting people back to work and paid, but saving face for Trump for something that he did completely to himself. Lindsay, do you even listen to your own words?
So says, the dickless wonder of South Carolina…
…I say, put him in a room with good-looking Garrett Haake of MSNBC (BTW, a very good reporter) and the slimey Lindsey will pant, melt and possibly flip to good-thursday-lindsey to impress 
In the long run…a lying, republican fucktard never changes.
Good article.
I started visiting Nogales in 1968. Then you just walked across thru a building and out the door and there you were. Coming back there was a turnstile about waist high and a guy in a uniform asking who you were; No papers needed within 5 miles of the border…it was called La Frontera Zone in “Spanglish”. In fact t go to Rocky Point at the top of the Gulf of California you also did not need papers. Over the years it has gotten worse and worse until now most of the businesses on Calle Obregon are either struggling or ar shuttered. I quit going when a gunfight erupted on that street while I was eating lunch in a 2nd story restaurant and bullets shattered the window. I don’t need that.
I feel for the shop keepers, I really do. And for those folks who live right on the border and normally went back and forth daily. And I really hate trump’s overt racism and demeaning rhetoric toward Hispanic people. They are my neighbors and I value their friendship. trump has done nothing to fix immigration. He has only made things worse. And he is a racist…on top of all his other faults.
edit
I bought a home in the town of San Cristobal in Chiapas State in 1990 and I spent a lot of time in that lovely town. My building (constructed in the late 1600’s) was built of limestone cubes 8 inches on a side and had a red tile roof sloping into an inner courtyard where an avocado tree and an orange tree lived side by side. So I have seen Mexico from end to end and met hundreds of her citizens. I have found them more than generous and accommodating. Far better than us.
In 1993 my home was “expropriated” by the local Federale chieftain who was beyond corrupt. He had guns so I could not argue the point. But even so I still have a soft spot for Mexico that trump will never understand.
I had no idea.
Well, the only way this Graham move is interesting is if McConnell gave him the nod to do this.
J-town (Juarez) used to be much the same, except that you had to cross a bridge (or cross the border from Anthony). Mrs Strad and I used to go down to the J-town Mercado almost monthly. She has some knock-off Louis Vuitton bags that are so good they fooled the folks in the LV store on Rodeo Drive. Coming home, you might have to stand in a line for a bit, but when you got to the turnstile, the guy in the green suit would ask, “Citizenship?”
“I’m a US citizen, officer.”
“Thank you. Do you have anything to declare?”
“No, sir.”
“Thank you, sir.”
That was it. No presenting passports, or border crossing cards, or driver’s licenses – just cross over. If you had booze, you had to pay for a Texas tax stamp. When all the narco violence started up, we stopped going to J-town. The last time we went our son was with us. He noted the Mexican border guards were carrying M-16s (which was not unusual) at port arms (which was unusual) and they were locked-and-loaded (which was extremely unusual). That was the point at which we decided we didn’t need to be crossing the border.
So, sort of like visiting East St. Louis.
I seriously miss getting lunch at “the Caverns” in Nogales where they learned from us how to make the correct Chimichanga (invented here in Tucson) which is a deep fried burrito with filling of your choice. And they had it mastered (maximum yum). It went really well with a Corona beer.
The best trump can come up with is a damned taco bowl which ain’t Mexican no how no way.
Fuckin’ piker.
“The wall plus something else” for the Democrats."
This is not going to end well for Republicans no matter what they encourage Donald to do. Even Coulter and Tucker are saying so.
If the GOP Senators push for this ridiculous National Emergency strategy to get the onus off their back, it will just come back from the courts to haunt them. The only thing they can really do is pass the same bill they sent to Trump before and hope he forgets and signs it. Stranger things have happened at this White House. Who knows? Maybe Putin will sign it. .
Sweeten the pot for democrats?
How about rescinding last year’s tax cut?