McConnell won’t. He’s burned way too many bridges.
Another majority leader? Perhaps.
Also have to wonder how long John McCain stays in DC before heading back to Arizona.
Menzo
1874
Trump probably fantasizing about what Putin would/could do in his shoes right now.
I’d guess he goes back after the Defense bill gets passed, and any further work on Russia sanctions is completed.
Nate Silver 1:58 AM
To echo Perry’s point — I was seeing some snark on Twitter earlier about how everyone will suddenly change their opinion about John McCain. To which my response is: well, shouldn’t this change people’s opinions? This was a huge deal. It’s not quite right to say he singlehandedly killed the GOP’s health care reform efforts — Collins and Murkowski were also important, obviously — but his choices made a huge difference in a bill that will affect a lot of people’s lives and a lot of his colleagues’ political fortunes. And he did so in dramatic fashion, in a way that will create a lot of embarrassment for McConnell and Trump. So it’s absolutely a big deal. It’s like if you had a quarterback who you always thought was overrated as a “clutch” performer and then that quarterback leads his team from 14 points down to win the Super Bowl. You have to give a lot of credit for that and not be too wedded to your priors going in.
I love the way he looked him right in the eye after as well.
“You thought I was bluffing. Bang.”
Nesrie
1882
My opinion has certainly improved. I honestly did not expect he could or would do it. I’ve already left polite message for his office. He’s not my senator, but I am thanking him anyway.
I am hoping this partisan bullshit can take a backseat for awhile and a serious attempt to improve ACA can be had… maybe that’s too optimistic, but it’s a tough week, and I need a little hope.
Fox News right now (not really).
Cross-posted in the Wisdom thread.
So let’s say you’re one of those 25-30 House Republicans who got elected from a district where Hillary Clinton either won…or came really close to winning in 2016. Paul Ryan just made you eat this crappy goulash of a bill…and you get nothing to show for it, other than someone pretty good from the other party is going to be coming after your seat pretty hard, and they’re going to be well funded and they’re going to have historical precedent on their side.
So I guess in the end, threatening Lisa Murkowski wasn’t the smartest move in the world.
I still don’t understand why Heller, Flake, Capito, Portman, Cassidy et al stayed on their YES votes even after it was clear this was going down.
I don’t believe it was clear at all. I think if you look back at all the insider messaging coming out of the Senate it looked like it was going to pass. I think McCain told them at the last moment he was a “no”. The turtle called Trump to ask for orders and was told “hold the vote anyway and call his bluff”. He did and was then humiliated on the senate floor when McCain looked him in the eye and voted no.
