Pirate's Cove

Let’s face it, Trump is going through a rough patch, one that has been, let’s also face it, been magnified a thousand fold by a news sector that has exposed its partisanship even more than when they were rooting for Obama and trying to get Bush. This is a media that seemed determined to avoid Obama’s many scandals, powergrabs, Constitutional assaults, and gaffes (awesome list of all here). Let’s start with the LA Times, by Excitable Lisa Mascaro. This is not in the opinion section, BTW

Not the tweets, the Russian issue or Comey’s firing: So what will it take for Republicans to break with Trump?

They fume privately at President Trump’s coziness with the Russians. They wince almost every time he tweets. They talk among themselves about what might have been with a different Republican in the White House.

Yet even as each new crisis seems like it might be the event that moves GOP lawmakers away from Trump, key Republican leaders and rank-and-file members circle the White House, protecting the president from attack and shifting the blame to Democrats and the media. (snip)

Whether the latest allegations will prove to be the tipping point for more GOP lawmakers remains to be seen, but initial reactions suggested many were standing behind the president.

But more to the point, if Republicans were to break ranks with the White House and begin to question Trump’s ability to govern, what would happen next?

Any acknowledgement by Republicans that Trump’s actions are unacceptable would lead to inevitable questions about what exactly Congress planned to do about it. And Republicans don’t appear ready to answer that.

Most Republicans are standing behind Trump, some, especially Centrists, are attempting to burn the circled wagons.

Then we have Laura Barron-Lopez at the fever swamp known as the Huffington Post

Republicans Show No Signs They’re Ready To Break With Trump As Scandals Pile Up

….

There’s no denying that months of bombshells have hampered the GOP’s agenda, creating distractions and making elected officials a little slower to offer public support. But rather than distancing themselves from Trump, Republicans are gently expressing tempered criticisms and the occasional admonishment, doing little in the way of constraining the administration or conducting effective oversight.

That leaves open the question of whether there will come a point when Republicans would actually bolt from the president.

Well, if

• running guns into Mexico in a scheme that left hundreds of Mexicans, including children, dead, and saw at least two American Border Agent’s murdered, didn’t cause Democrats to turn from Obama
• if crafting a deal that will legitimately allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons in the near future while also give Iran hundreds of billions which will be used for terrorism did not cause Dems to turn from Obama
• if weaponizing the IRS to target citizens didn’t cause Dems to turn from Obama
• if lying to the American people regarding Obamacare didn’t caused Dems to turn from Obama
• if spying on reporters didn’t caused the Dem supporting news media to drop support for Obama
• if spying on Americans, including members of Congress, didn’t cause Dems to turn on Obama….

That list could go on and on and on.

Here’s Dan Baltz at the Washington Post

As Trump’s woes mount, congressional Republicans arrive at a moment of reckoning

As President Trump has lurched from one crisis to another, Republicans have chosen a strategy of compartmentalization over confrontation, preferring to look away in hopes that the storm would pass. Now, after a pair of stunning revelations about the president, that approach may have run aground. For the GOP, this has become a moment of reckoning.

Nobody circles the wagons like Democrats. If only Republicans were able to stay on message half as well. Most of Trump’s “scandals” – let’s not forget that so much of this same media said that Obama’s 8 years were pretty much scandal free – are really gaffes, poor optics, and poor messaging that have been turned into mountains by a media that is the #Resistance.

If Democrats, and the mostly Democratic Party voting news outlets, could continue providing 100% backing of Obama when he did nothing about the VA scandal and having his Attorney General meet with the husband of the target of an FBI criminal investigation, then Republicans can stand behind Trump for these minor, tiny gaffes.

Oh, hey, remember when Obama and his admin blurted out classified intel on the Bin Laden raid, which led to the deaths of Seal Team 6 members?

Crossed at Right Wing News.