From: januarybaybee@gmail.com   
      
   CNN Fri January 25, 2019   
      
   Pelosi brought Trump to his knees   
      
   (CNN)  The shutdown is finally ending. President Donald Trump went on   
   television Friday afternoon and announced he will allow the government to   
   reopen for three weeks.   
      
   Although picking winners and losers in politics is always tricky, there is a   
   clear-cut case to be made that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just completed a   
   masterful political strategy that brought Trump to his knees.  The President   
   is going to do what the    
   Democrats have demanded all along: Open the government now, negotiate over   
   border security and the wall later.   
      
   Trump leaves the budget battle without getting what he wanted, badly damaged   
   with the electorate, including among some Republican voters, and with the   
   first cracks having emerged among congressional Republicans.  This was not how   
   he wanted to head into    
   the year as the investigations into his administration seriously heat up.   
      
   How did Pelosi do it?  What were the basic strategic moves that she made to so   
   decisively block a President who has survived much longer than his 15 minutes   
   of fame?   
      
   The most important factor was that Pelosi did not hesitate to use her   
   political power aggressively.  From the start of this process, she has   
   remained steadfast in her insistence that closing the government was not a   
   legitimate way to make demands for new    
   forms of spending.   
      
   While sometimes Democrats become leery about seeming too partisan and not   
   being civil enough, Pelosi and the Democrats stood their ground.  She drew a   
   line in the sand and stuck by it.   
      
   When Trump tried to ignore her first letter about the State of the Union   
   address, she was quick to send a second one with the direct message that he   
   would not be allowed to speak if the doors of government were shut.    
   Institutional power is the primary    
   mechanism through which to restrain a president.   
      
   Pelosi also did a good job keeping almost every Democrat in line.  She ruled   
   the caucus with an iron fist, making certain that none of her members opted   
   for some kind of bipartisan deal contravening her approach.  This kind of   
   party unity is something    
   that the Republicans have perfected, but Democrats can have trouble   
   maintaining.   
      
   Not only did she do this with the House, but she also worked closely with   
   Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer to make sure that members held in the   
   upper chamber.  Other than with Joe Manchin, the strategy worked. With   
   discipline, a party can make    
   things very difficult for the President, as Republicans showed under President   
   Barack Obama.   
      
   In a refreshing manner, Pelosi also refused to give in to the chaotic frenzy   
   of the Trump White House.  The strategy was apparent when she and Schumer met   
   with Trump in the bizarre televised conference in the Oval Office.  She sat   
   quietly and let Trump    
   be Trump.  She didn't have to say much as the President proudly claimed   
   ownership to the shutdown before it even began.   
      
   Since that meeting his statements and misstatements, as well as those of his   
   tin-eared advisers, only hurt the administration's cause.  Rather than jumping   
   into each outrageous statement, she remained calm and let the President do her   
   work for her.  When    
   he tried to overrule her letter disinviting him to make the State of the Union   
   on January 29, she was clear that he didn't get to set the date and time of   
   the speech just because he wanted it.   
      
   The speaker also understood something that Democrats often forget: Americans   
   like their government.  While polls usually show that the public opposes   
   government in the abstract, when asked about specific measures such as Social   
   Security or homeland    
   security people sing a different tune.   
      
   This is the dynamic that is usually at work with government shutdowns.  As the   
   pain of having no government becomes clear -- such as the announcement of   
   airport delays Friday with dizzying maps of planes thrown off course -- people   
   usually become unhappy.   
      Most Republicans remembered this from the shutdowns in 1995-1996 and 2013.    
   Pelosi certainly did.  Trump did not.  And now he is paying the price.   
      
   Many new members of the House were uncertain about voting for Pelosi to be   
   their leader.  She quickly quashed the insurgents.     
      
   But now, in her first official confrontation with Trump, she has proven her   
   chops to all of them.  It is no wonder the President has been so reluctant to   
   tweet about her or give her a demeaning nickname.     
      
   He has seen his top opponent, and the President is scared.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)