Rep. Barbara Comstock, the only Republican member of Congress from Northern Virginia, voted for an amendment sponsored by Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Rob Bishop (R-Utah) to strip the rule from the package. The rule “diminishes the roles of the authorizing committees in the House, and will make it more difficult to pass appropriations bills in the new Congress,” Comstock’s spokesman, Jeff Marschner, said in a statement. However, when the rules package, including the Holman measure, came to the floor Tuesday, she voted for it, as did all but three Republicans. All the Democrats voted no. And they likely will. I'm not saying this is a good thing. But they dont' have a filibuster-proof majority and the time has come to pick battles. The Democrats lose nothing by fighting this. The Republicans lose unity. Which they're going to be doing a lot of.Several House Republicans tried to block revival of the Holman Rule in a closed-door meeting Monday evening.
It's been what? five days since that ethics office mess? I don't think Trump gives them time to get on the same page. Now he's sending his wall through appropriations, after running almost exclusively on "making Mexico pay for it" meanwhile on Twitter he's arguing that the press are liars because "make Mexico pay us back for it" is obviously virtually the same. He ain't even President yet.
They run the risk of being painted as obstructionists and sore losers. The spin machines on both sides seem to be firing on all 8 cylinders at this point. Public discourse is probably gonna get pretty ugly.The Democrats lose nothing by fighting this.