When I called it a day last night, there was Donald Trump claiming victory, looking like death warmed over. I scanned everything, and it did not look like victory. I had just watched house of Senate back and forth and seen that this should have been a civil process that acknowledges problems on all sides. That it was the result of a marriage made in hell.
The marriage was between the GOP and Donald Trump. Try to imagine two more malevolent forces. Good luck.
The McCain intervention
This was not shaggy dog heroism. McCain announced his intention apparently when he got up from his sick bed and flew to DC.
The bill was a mess, and so was the President. We should return to regular order and start functioning like the Senate is supposed to work. He was the Democratic Minority Leader for a few hours. Finally, he joined but two women -- Senators Collins and Murkowski -- to create the final stroke of the hammer on the nail that is entering the coffin of Donald Trump.
More nails are coming
This is the week of turning in the Trump drama. That has been said every week since his bile attack began with the birther madness and careened through his campaign. By the time he was elected the political landscape had been poisoned. By now there has been enough evidence collected to render the judgment that he is a failed president whose continued occupancy of the White House needs to end.
Senate Rejects Slimmed-Down Obamacare Repeal as McCain Votes No https://t.co/gu256VzA1I
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) 28 July 2017
Look to October
This will not happen overnight but the pieces are in place, and Trump can no longer look truth in the face without showing the marks of mortality in his thespian appearance. I say that the items I shall name are determinative and that within three months this will play out.
The five pieces
First, there is the still lurking and disturbing Russia matter. It will not go away, and Trump will be seen as having struggled so much because there was something there. Second, the health care fiasco is still in the making. Trump is so vengeful that he will, in destructive actions and statements, create more and more damage to his standing, including the fraying of his base.
Sessions, gay-bashing, and absenteeism
The final pieces are easily surmised. The Sessions matter, however it is resolved, is lethal. It will go down in history as a precipitating cause of Trump's exit. Just as bad is Trump's defensive entry into culture wars with his roundhouse slap at gays in general. And finally, under the heading of absenteeism, we can lump actual emoluments problems, tax return problems and issues related to Trump's mental state and utter incompetence.