Schumer Continues To Play Confrontational Games With GOP

This is some of the nonsense around Washington that annoys so many Americans…probably including many of those who voted for President Donald Trump…that is part of the label of ‘swamp’. If we want to win some of them back we need to end these politics as usual.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is suggesting that legislation protecting the investigation being led by Robert Mueller be added to the spending legislation that will be coming up for a vote in December. The Democrats would essentially be creating another doomsday scenario for the federal government.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said Sunday that Democrats might tie their support for the next spending bill to legislation that would protect special counsel Robert Mueller – although he stopped short of saying he would be willing to risk a shutdown.

I understand the need for taking a strong position to protect the Mueller investigation. But I am getting tired of adding non-budgetary items to budget bills. It sucks when they do it in Madison and it sucks when they do it in Washington. Sometimes it is done to slip something through without having to take a stand on it…and sometimes like now…it is done to get a necessary but hot potato item approved in a must pass piece of legislation.

My feeling is it’s time to put the Mueller protection bill out there as a stand alone bill and let it pass or fail on its merits. Although allowing Mr. Mueller complete his investigation polls pretty well with the general public, voting on it probably scares the bejeebus out of Congress. Democrats in purple districts don’t want to risk their 2020 bids on it. Republicans would probably treat it as an end of career vote if they voted yea. And for that reason alone Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is saying we don’t need to protect Mr. Mueller and says it won’t be brought up in the Senate.

He noted that McConnell said he didn’t think such legislation was necessary before Sessions was fired because there was no concern that Mueller’s investigation would be interfered with when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein oversaw it.

“With Whitaker, there is every reason to believe there will be interference, based on what Mr. Whitaker has said. The world has changed from when Rosenstein was in charge of the investigation, and I think, I believe, that many Republicans will find the same,” Schumer said.

But I think it needs to be brought up separately. We deserve to know where Congress stands…where each individual member stands…on the rule of law, the separation of power, and the status of democracy in the United States. And as noted, Rod Rosenstein isn’t in charge anymore (unless Acting AG Whitaker recuses himself).

And at some point we have to let Congress know that pushing agenda items through on budget bills isn’t how we expect them to conduct our business in Washington.

So in the meantime, it would be nice if they could actually work on a budget bill!