Thank you for bearing with me; a much-needed break was warranted.
At a certain point, time is going to run out on blaming past administrations for foreign policy mistakes, mismanagement domestically and a slow-growing economy, but are those things going to matter? Starting tomorrow, probably not as Special Counsel Robert Mueller takes into custody the subject of his first grand jury indictment into to the Russia campaign-meddling investigation.
The state of U.S. political affairs right now are like a Jenga puzzle that's fallen apart and there's no one left to put it back together. You a man with authoritarian inclinations in the White House who profits off the presidency, a Republican fmr. chief strategist to Mr. Trump declaring war on the Republican establishment, against which the Republican Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is now openly fighting. Democrats have their own credibility problems and no juice to fix them. Excluded completely from the legislative process, Democrats' voices have been drowned out, with their only hope that the Republican party goes so far off the extremist deep end that they'll be the only alternative. It's likely. Senators like Ted Cruz (R-TX) telling Republican colleagues to "shut up and do your jobs," in the face of a bully president while you have senators like Rob Portman (R-OH) barely able to speak in trying to fly below the radar of the Bannon-Trump attack machine because moderates are getting squeezed.
Senator Portman said that party in-fighting is nothing new for either side, but emphasized that if the president succeeds, the country succeeds, but it's difficult to see that when the president has a 38% approval rating. Neither Mr. Portman nor anyone else has any idea what the definition of success in the mind of President Trump. For Mr. Portman, does that mean sitting by complacently silent, while someone else defines your principles, consistently violating them. A meek performance today. That's not to say that Senator Portman isn't better for the country then any Bannon-backed candidate, he definitely is, but the blind fury of the base hasn't abated.
Fmr. Chairman of the American Conservative Union, Al Cardenas described the current state of the Republican party in terms of everyone being expected to take a knee to the president. Mr. Portman did his best.
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), for her part, refreshingly talks substance and details of tax reform, but it falls on deaf ears because Republicans have no inclination to listen. Describing herself as a moderate, she said that she is willing to work across the aisle, either that or obstruction, but she concluded that it will be a party-line vote, but she didn't give you the other part of the equation, which is Republicans don't want to work with her, or any Democrat for that matter.
Once the indictment comes tomorrow, we'll be facing a whole new set of problems, none of which will do anything to close the voter enthusiasm gap that Amy Walter kept coming back to. The big question is it enough for Democrats? Double digits, she and Chris Matthews both agreed. Dems. aren't going to get it. Fox commentators, such as Sean Hannity, are already ramping up the attacks on the integrity of the special counsel, picking up the slack for a president tempering his responses, for legally jeopardizing reasons most probably. (The president 'tempering' his comments is relative, of course.)
Republicans will soon has to choose sides, depending on what this first, and surely not the last, indictment brings, and the rule-of-law and the faith in our institutions are without a doubt going to be put to the test. Huntington, West Virginia Fire Chief Jan Radar said that it has been years since a day went by in her county that there wasn't at least one overdose call - every fourth call is for an overdose. The president's declaration of a public health crisis designates no compulsory funding to counter the problem, only a national emergency would do that, a health care budget provision that Republicans want to scrub.
President Donald Trump is ultimately going to be held responsible for the aforementioned mess. When you're the president, it is inevitable. He's broken it, most certainly, and smashing everything into tinier pieces, but is special counsel Robert Mueller the one to fix it? Even if you wish that were likely, it's not.
Panel: Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; Eliana Johnson, Politico; Al Cardenas, fmr. chairman of the American Conservative Union; Chris Matthews, NBC News
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