The Trumperly Hillbillies (Sung to the theme song of “The Beverly Hillbillies”)
Come and listen to my story ‘bout a clown named Don
A New York huckster, always on the con
But then one day, well he hatched a master plan
And the next thing you know, he’s running all the land
Dumb shit...Nitwit
You know, sometimes Trump’s arrogance, ignorance, or just flat out unwillingness to listen to people who know more about something than he does comes back to bite him in the ass in little ways, ways that are not easily discerned if you’re not looking for them. I’m not talking about his cover up disaster on Trump-Russia, I’m talking about something more fundamental.
We don’t have to cast our memories back to recall how close we came to the abyss on the skinny repeal vote in the Senate. When you have to pin your hopes, and possibly even your life on the vengeance and pique level of John McCain with Trump and Mitch McConnell, you’re on pretty shaky ground. But the scary part is that if Trump had bothered to pull his obstinate head out of his ass 6 months ago, McCain’s vote may not have mattered at all.
Axios is out with a new story on just how easily the healthcare vote outcome could have been tragically different if His Lowness could just shut his big, fat sewer hole long enough to take a little information in for a change. At the time it occurred, there was widespread commentary on Trump’s refusal to name even a token Democrat or two to his cabinet in at least a passing nod to bipartisanship. More than sufficient examples were provided of past President’s of both parties giving a nod to their minority opponents. Trump flatly refused to even consider this, and went with an all GOP, mostly moron cabinet.
There were several very knowledgeable Republican strategists who wanted Trump to salt his cabinet with a couple of Democrats, but for totally cynical and strategic reasons. Yertl the Turtle had a razor thin majority in the Senate, with only two votes to spare. What if the Tiny Thumbs Diktator could give McConnell a little breathing room, at absolutely no expense to the Republican party or the Trump agenda? Their reasoning was diabolical, but sound. The leading Democrats they wanted to consider for cabinet positions were as follows;
- The #1 prospect was Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), perhaps for Secretary of Agriculture. North Dakota Gov Doug Burgum is a Republican, so he could have engineered a successor who would have been the vote Trump needed.
- Another possibility that was kicked around was Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) for a job like Secretary of Energy. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is a Democrat but has a close relationship with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and might have played ball on a conservative replacement.
- Another Cabinet prospect: Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.).
Notice the common thread? All of them are from red states, two of them with Republican Governors, and even the Democratic West Virginia Governor may have played ball with McConnell. Promote these Democrats, hold special elections in red states, and Viola! You go from a 52-48 majority to a 55-45 majority. Both the House and the Senate could have gone ahead with their healthcare machinations, and simply waited for the new Senators to be sworn in before dropping the vote hammer. And getting 6 “No” votes would have been much more difficult than the 3 the Democrats ended up needing, nigh on impossible in fact.
So, while it may be just lots of fun to watch Trump shoot himself in the foot with an M-16 set on full auto day after day, sometimes his arrogance and complete inability to comprehend simple political strategy, and even math can do more harm to him, and be more of a salvation to us than all of the Russian collusion in the world. Please proceed Mr. President.