There’s a story I’ve heard all my life. It’s the story of the scorpion and the frog. A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, they would both drown. Considering this, the frog agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When the frog asks the scorpion why, the scorpion replies that it was in its nature to do so.
There are many Republicans who felt like they were the frog on September 6, 2017 after President Trump sided with the Democratic Congressional leadership on a series of key fiscal issues. The President tossed aside the recommendations of Republicans Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell and endorsed the plan of Senate Minority Leader Schumer and House Minority Leader Pelosi (Chuck and Nancy as the President called them) for a bill to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling for three months.
Republicans had wanted to push debt ceiling funding out 18 months past the 2018 mid-term elections. Mr. Trump’s decision to support the position of his fellow New Yorker, Senator Schumer, left many House and Senate Republicans feeling betrayed. Now these Republicans will have to vote again on a funding package in December that might include support for funding the President’s wall, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) legislation, increasing the debt ceiling and funding the government for the rest of FY18. All of these are tripwire votes that Republicans did not want to make and will certainly serve as fodder for opposition ads in the future. It’s easy to see why these Congressmen feel stung.
However, Democrats should also be wary of placing trust in a man who has shown that he is not loyal to any ideology or person other than himself. On September 6, Mr. Trump traveled to North Dakota to tout his tax-cut plan and took with him Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp. He praised her on stage, calling her a ‘good woman’ and went on to speak about “his great bipartisan meeting.” However, no one should have any illusion as to whether or not Mr. Trump would trash Senator Heitkamp on Twitter in a heartbeat because he would, if he thought it would serve his purpose.
There is a saying about ‘Dancing with the one who brung you.’ Many Republicans discovered last week that that dance can be painful to endure. A really good read on this can be found here from the Washington Post.
