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Pelosi's absolutely crushing McConnell in their congressional rematch and the GOP is paying for it
In the rematch between Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Pelosi is quite simply kicking some McConnell butt.
To be honest, I have always thought of Pelosi as the most accomplished lawmaker of the 111th Congress, the first two years of Barack Obama's presidency in which Democrats pushed through a historic health care overhaul, Wall Street reform, credit card reform and several transformative civil rights bills like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and repealing the military's ban on lesbians and gays serving openly in the military. The second most successful lawmaker that Congress in my book, was McConnell, who held his caucus together with extraordinary discipline to block other potential advancements once Democrats lost their supermajority in the upper chamber. In fact, if Pelosi hadn't held the Democratic caucus together with equal discipline on a difficult health care vote in the spring of 2010, McConnell's Republicans almost certainly would have blocked the Affordable Care Act from becoming law.
.........................................................................................................
Since Democrats assumed control of the lower chamber, Pelosi has delivered one drubbing after the next to McConnell, despite the fact that Senate Republicans gained several seats last November. Sure, the intemperate and self-obsessed Trump has been a drag on McConnell, but only because Pelosi has held so unwaveringly steady that it has forced a deepening rift between Trump and the GOP Senate that McConnell has proven incapable in navigating.
The main fight, of course, has been over Trump's biggest campaign promise and pet project, the border wall. Trump thinks he's a dog with a bone here; what he doesn't realize is that Pelosi's actually wielding that bone like a cudgel to club him repeatedly. And the more Pelosi clubs Trump, the more she drives a wedge between him and the GOP Senate and the more powerless McConnell becomes.
Just think about McConnell's string of humiliations since Democrats scored historic gains in last year's midterms. Last December, McConnell thought he had a deal to keep the government funded, but after his caucus approved the funding bill, Trump torpedoed it while demanding more wall funding. That teed up Pelosi, who held so steady and in command of her caucus during Trump's grinding shutdown, that McConnell's caucus began to crack under the pressure.
As House Democrats repeatedly passed bills to reopen the government, McConnell continually sought to protect Trump by refusing to take up any of the funding bills. As Republican approval ratings plummeted along with Trump's, GOP senators began sniping at each other. "This is your fault,” Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin finally fired at McConnell at one tense caucus luncheon.
To be honest, I have always thought of Pelosi as the most accomplished lawmaker of the 111th Congress, the first two years of Barack Obama's presidency in which Democrats pushed through a historic health care overhaul, Wall Street reform, credit card reform and several transformative civil rights bills like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and repealing the military's ban on lesbians and gays serving openly in the military. The second most successful lawmaker that Congress in my book, was McConnell, who held his caucus together with extraordinary discipline to block other potential advancements once Democrats lost their supermajority in the upper chamber. In fact, if Pelosi hadn't held the Democratic caucus together with equal discipline on a difficult health care vote in the spring of 2010, McConnell's Republicans almost certainly would have blocked the Affordable Care Act from becoming law.
.........................................................................................................
Since Democrats assumed control of the lower chamber, Pelosi has delivered one drubbing after the next to McConnell, despite the fact that Senate Republicans gained several seats last November. Sure, the intemperate and self-obsessed Trump has been a drag on McConnell, but only because Pelosi has held so unwaveringly steady that it has forced a deepening rift between Trump and the GOP Senate that McConnell has proven incapable in navigating.
The main fight, of course, has been over Trump's biggest campaign promise and pet project, the border wall. Trump thinks he's a dog with a bone here; what he doesn't realize is that Pelosi's actually wielding that bone like a cudgel to club him repeatedly. And the more Pelosi clubs Trump, the more she drives a wedge between him and the GOP Senate and the more powerless McConnell becomes.
Just think about McConnell's string of humiliations since Democrats scored historic gains in last year's midterms. Last December, McConnell thought he had a deal to keep the government funded, but after his caucus approved the funding bill, Trump torpedoed it while demanding more wall funding. That teed up Pelosi, who held so steady and in command of her caucus during Trump's grinding shutdown, that McConnell's caucus began to crack under the pressure.
As House Democrats repeatedly passed bills to reopen the government, McConnell continually sought to protect Trump by refusing to take up any of the funding bills. As Republican approval ratings plummeted along with Trump's, GOP senators began sniping at each other. "This is your fault,” Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin finally fired at McConnell at one tense caucus luncheon.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/16/1842659/-Pelosi-s-absolutely-crushing-McConnell-in-their-congressional-rematch-and-the-GOP-is-paying-for-it
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