Chuck Schumer Finally Pledges to Do Something

But he may have finally found his breaking point. It wasn’t Trump ignoring the Supreme Court (Schumer’s own previously stated red line) or a suspension of due process so Stephen Miller can kidnap people to a foreign concentration camp, or even Schumer’s own constituents being wrongfully abducted by ICE—Schumer has proven he is willing to conduct normal Senate business through all of that destruction of America’s core values. What has changed the worst Democratic Leader of my life’s tune is the $400 million plane given to Trump by Qatar that America’s major newspapers are constitutionally incapable of calling a bribe. Congrats feckless NYT editors, Chuck Schumer is more willing to call a spade a spade than you guys are.

Schumer announced today that due to this bribe, he will place a hold on Trump’s nominees to the Department of Justice. “This is not just naked corruption,” Schumer said. “It is also a grave national security threat.” Because this is the gerontocratic Democratic Party and they are constitutionally incapable of processing the 21st century without a Cold War lens, Schumer also added that this bribe is “so corrupt that even Putin would give a double take.”

This is a good move by Chuck Schumer. It’s way too late and he has already indicted himself by revealing his bankrupt value system, but this is a classic case of better late than never. Granted, this is a temporary hold on DOJ nominees as Schumer said he wants “more answers” about this cartoonish corruption, so don’t hold your breath that the most cowardly Democrat of the century will hold the line here. Maybe Attorney General Pam Bondi does acquiesce to his request and testifies to Congress and lies that the plane was not a bribe and Schumer sees that as “more answers” to allow him to do what he truly wants to do: let his Republican colleagues do whatever they want while letting him occasionally vote on bills to nowhere.

Senate Democrats cannot stop Republicans without Republican votes, but they can slow Senate business down, like Tommy Tuberville did all last year to their chagrin by holding up appointments to the military. Any singular Senate Democrat has the power to object to unanimous consent and slow things down, and the fact that none of them have done so tells you how interested Democrats truly are in gumming up the works of the Senate the way the GOP does every single time they are in power. This is a small step in the right direction, but the fact it took this much rampant criminality to even start trying to junk up Trump’s agenda does not give me much faith that Schumer is interested in a prolonged fight. I’d love to be wrong, but betting on Schumer backing down from a fight so far has proven to be free money.