17 January 2019 — 2223 mst
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should stop
hurling playground taunts at President Trump
After President Trump boxed himself in a cul-de-sac on 11 December 2018, I wrote that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer:
…demonstrated their ability to goad Trump into backing himself into a corner from which there may be no face saving escape. I think the odds of a government shutdown over this issue are better than even.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
After the shouting match, and the equally unproductive private meeting that followed, Schumer told reporters that Trump threw a temper tantrum, and Pelosi told a closed meeting of Democrats that:
…for Mr. Trump, the wall was “like a manhood thing for him.
“As if manhood could ever be associated with him,” she said.
We know what she said because after the closed meeting, an unidentified Democratic aide blabbed to the press.
Democrats will find Pelosi’s and Schumer’s comments accurate and soul satisfying, which they are. But I also find them impolitic and worrisome, as they will further enrage Trump to no useful purpose on an issue that matters deeply to his core supporters.
The personal attacks by Pelosi and Schumer have not abated. Indeed, they appear to be part of a strategy to taunt and belittle Donald Trump the man; to enrage him and goad him into ever more outrageous behavior, such as today’s lowdown and high-handed decision to deprive our troops in Afghanistan the honor of a visit from the Speaker of the House, that hurts our nation.
That’s a mistake. The taunts ill become the Speaker of the House and the Senate’s minority leader. Personal insults are the trademark of political hackery, not the hallmark of statesmanship.
Driving Trump, who may be a certifiable sociopath, further into a corner will not reopen the government. Instead of treating the President of the United States as a misbehaving toddler, Pelosi and Schumer should be making the constitutional and political case for rescuing Trump from himself, and the nation from Trump, by passing legislation to reopen the government — and if necessary, passing it by overriding Trump’s veto.
Furthermore, Pelosi and Schumer should explain how Mitch McConnell, by refusing to put legislation to a vote because Trump says he might not sign it, is abdicating his constitutional duties and violating his oath of office.
Speak the truth. Hold the taunts.