As White House spirals into crisis, what will Congress do? GOP leaders face unhappy choice
WEDNESDAY, FEB 15, 2017 08:15 AM EST
As Trump's White House implodes, congressional Republicans must confront a dilemma: Their country or their agenda
HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
All hell is breaking loose in the White House this week. With the resignation of National Security adviser Michael Flynn Monday night and the ensuing fallout, the Trump administration is careening into a full-blown crisis. This didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s been obvious since the campaign that Donald Trump’s alleged leadership talents were more hype than reality. His fluky campaign victory convinced him that he was a genius. But he’s never run anything more complicated than his family business, doesn’t read books or listen to people and is a narcissist who thinks he already knows everything there is to know and actually knows almost nothing.
This is not the first time we’ve had presidents who didn’t have a lot going on upstairs or were a bit kooky. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush come to mind when you think about the former and Richard Nixon was more than a little bit unbalanced. But both Reagan and Bush respected the office and hired experienced staff to help them execute the job professionally. Nixon had major personality defects but was highly intelligent. Trump’s incompetence and extreme egotism are a lethal combination and it’s led his presidency to come apart before it even came together.
Our democratic system does have methods to deal with a situation like this. The press was slow off the mark but is working hard to inform the public now that Trump has assumed office. Reporters seem to be blessed with dozens of sources from inside the administration, government agencies and the intelligence services, all of whom seem to be in a near state of panic about the evolving Trump debacle.
The courts have independent power and they have already begun to deploy it against Trump’s ill-considered travel ban. At the end of the day they may not be able to stop the administration’s odious orders entirely, but they are slowing the process down. Trump and his staff may not understand that the judiciary is an equal branch but judges do. Although they generally show a lot of deference to the executive in national security cases, this early experience may have them exerting more resistance than usual.
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http://www.salon.com/2017/02/15/as-white-house-spirals-into-crisis-what-will-congress-do-gop-leaders-face-unhappy-choice/
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