Degenerate

Continuing his feud with Donald Trump, Joe Scarborough is increasingly less endeared with the Republican Party:

So you’re saying the fate of the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan now rests solely on a phony wall that was created as a memory device for a scatter-brained politician?

Maybe, just maybe, the party deserves to die. https://t.co/rkAJQ05VUx

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) January 9, 2019

The New York Times had explained that references during the primary and general election campaigns to a wall on the southern border were promoted by advisers as

a mnemonic device of sorts, a way to make sure their candidate — who hated reading from a script but loved boasting about himself and his talents as a builder — would remember to talk about getting tough on immigration, which was to be a signature issue in his nascent campaign.

That rhetorical device now has been magnified immeasurably, aided by South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who after the President's immigration speech told Sean Hannity

To my Republican colleagues: This is the best chance we’ll ever have to help President Trump get border wall funding, steel barrier funding, and at the same time, fix the loopholes. The only way we’ll lose is to give in. If we stand firm, put bills on the table that make sense, we will win this on behalf of the American people.

But, if we undercut the president, that’s the end of his presidency, and the end of our party - and we deserve to be punished if we give in now.

A former GOP US Representative, Scarborough was being generous when he argued "maybe the party needs to die." We learn from Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee

I tried (as did Blumenthal) to get meeting w/AG nominee Barr and was told he couldn’t meet until AFTER the hearing. The reason given? The shutdown. Yet shutdown didn’t stop him from other mtgs. This is a 1st for me w/any nominee as a member of judiciary. #Uncool #BadSign

— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) January 10, 2019

Barr is not a furloughed worker and has met with Republican members of the Judiciary Committee. A former Obama  Justice Department spokesperson tweets

.@amyklobuchar just said to @chrislhayes that Barr refused to meet with her before his hearing next week, supposedly because of the shutdown. I have never heard of an AG nominee refusing meetings with Judiciary members before. Incredibly disrespectful.

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) January 10, 2019

"If we give in now," Lindsey Graham remarked, "we deserve to be punished." Graham has the right prescription for the wrong reason(s). As its members of Congress stand by their man in the White House, the party doesn't deserve to be punished. For the sake of American democracy, it needs to be replaced by a party which gives more than lip service to the national interest.

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