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Imagine how Republicans would have reacted if President Barack Obama had attacked a retailer for dropping his daughters product line. Or asked senators to confirm a Cabinet pick who said guns are needed in schools to defend against grizzly bears. Or tried to undermine the independence of the federal judiciary. Or equated the United States moral standing with that of Vladimir Putins Russia.

There would have been howls of outrage, of course, and multiple investigations, and even calls for impeachment. But its President Trump doing all those things, so Republicans in Congress are as meek and quiet as mice.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the chaotic and exhausting first three weeks of the Trump administration is the degree to which Republicans have held together, placing loyalty above all else. The party of Lincoln has sold its soul and like all Faustian bargains, this one will not end well.

Trump looks likely to get every one of his Cabinet nominees approved. Billionaire Betsy DeVos gave the worst performance in memory, surely one of the worst in history, at her confirmation hearing, displaying a level of ignorance that was truly shocking. Only two Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska had the integrity to vote against her. Vice President Pence had to break a 50-50 tie, but DeVos is now the secretary of education.

And that was the closest thing weve seen to a GOP revolt in these confirmations. Not one Republican voted against confirming Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general, despite his ugly history on civil rights. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) went so far as to formally squelch Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) so she could not read aloud a letter criticizing Sessions written decades ago by Coretta Scott King.

Trumps pick for the Labor Department, fast-food magnate Andrew Puzder, has conflicts of interest and a nanny problem; he may face some pushback. Ben Carson has zero qualifications to lead Housing and Urban Development. But if DeVos got through, its hard to imagine who would be deemed unacceptable by the GOP majority.

Over in the House, meanwhile, all the zeal for holding the executive branch accountable has gone poof. Remember how eager House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was to investigate every real or imagined question about the Obama administration? Remember how he went after Hillary Clinton over her emails? Suddenly and this is rich he declines to launch any probe that might be seen as a fishing expedition.

Trumps attack on a private company, Nordstrom, for no longer carrying his daughter Ivankas line of merchandise? Not a big deal, Chaffetz said. Trumps hotel lease for the Old Post Office building, which makes him both landlord and tenant? Chaffetz is curious but wants to wait for an opinion by the General Services Administration, which now reports to Trump. The many potential conflicts of interest posed by Trumps worldwide business interests? Chaffetz stifles a yawn.

And only a few Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), have shown any interest in investigating the biggest question hanging over the Trump administration: What role did Russia play in the election? This abdication of duty is cynicism of the highest order, or perhaps I should say the lowest.

The GOPs lockstep unity has been impressive, and it may eventually allow the party to achieve some of its long-held policy goals: cutting taxes, eliminating regulations, repealing the Affordable Care Act. But there are enormous risks.

The dawn of the Trump presidency has inspired a groundswell of progressive activism around the country. The energy generated by the massive Womens March on Washington and its satellite marches last month has been sustained. Republican members of Congress have been deluged by phone calls at their offices and confronted by protesters in their home districts. The women are in my grill no matter where I go, said Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.).

If opposition to Trump unites and motivates Democrats the way that opposition to Obama did for Republicans, GOP strategists should be very worried.

Beyond the political risk, there is the existential risk of blindly following a man who continues to demonstrate his unfitness for the presidency. Trump shows no respect for American institutions or traditions. He sees those who disagree with him as haters and dismisses inconvenient facts as fake news. He deliberately stokes fear. He bristles at constitutional checks on his power.

And to think, there once was a Republican president who summoned the better angels of our nature.

Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.

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In Congress, Republicans are quiet and meek as mice - Washington Post

New York Times

Consumer Watchdog Faces Attack by House Republicans New York Times The memo, drafted by the chairman, Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Texas and a longtime foe of the consumer agency, aligns House Republicans with President Trump in the latest attack on President Barack Obama's legacy. The memo ... Republican plan would ease Wall Street rules, as party embraces deregulationReuters Here's the Republican Masterplan for Wall Street DeregulationFortune Presidential Executive Order on Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial SystemThe White House Consumer Financial Protection Bureau all 146 news articles »

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Consumer Watchdog Faces Attack by House Republicans - New York Times

President Trump is shaking up Washington with a shock and awe campaign that has caught the establishment flat-footed including the Republicans who are supposed to be helping him with the heavy lifting.

Consider what Trump has gotten done in a little over three weeks, with little or no help from GOP lawmakers. Its a lengthy list, and it is growing every day:

In other words, President Trump gets it. He wants to move quickly to keep his campaign promised. He wants to get things done. The question is, where are the Republicans in Congress to help him?

I have lived my entire life with a sense of urgency, and the people who work with me in TV and radio share this ethic. We dont go out to long lunches to discuss plans over fancy entrees and Merlot. We usually eat lunch at our desks.

But it seems like the Republicans, who should be helping Trump advance the agenda America voted for, are always out to lunch.

Now, they're saying that a bill to deal with ObamaCare may not be ready until the end of the year and that the promise Republicans have made for nearly eight years to repeal and replace it might be more like repeal and repair."

These are the same Republicans who repeatedly said that if the voters could only give them the White House, Senate and House, they would abolish ObamaCare once and for all. Now that these spineless, gutless and timid career politicians have all three, whats their excuse?

President Trump's health care agenda is clear. He wants more competition, portability, erasing state lines and health care savings accounts. We've all heard it throughout the campaign and even since his election victory. Congress has had years to come up with an ObamaCare replacement that meets these goals, yet Republicans don't have a consensus plan in place. Its pathetic.

Its not just ObamaCare. President Trump has a bold tax plan, too, and Republicans are also dragging their feet on that. They're saying they can't start on the bill until spring, but Trump is ready to act now.

Lowering the overall tax code on American businesses big league, that's coming along very well, he said this week. We're way ahead of schedule, I believe, and we're going to be announcing something, I would say, over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax.

President Trump is ready to move quickly and pass his agenda, but Republicans in the House and Senate wont get on board. As with health care, Trumps tax plan is simple -- lower income taxes for middle-class Americans, go from seven brackets to three brackets, reduce the corporate tax rate to 15 percent and incentivize multinational corporations to repatriate trillions of dollars sitting overseas so they can build factories and manufacturing centers here in America.

Delaying the tax cut means the odds of it actually getting passed decrease. Even worse, it means delaying the much-needed economic recovery.

The inept Republicans in Washington need to remember that the election that put President Trump in the White House was all about Americas forgotten men and women, the millions out of work, on food stamps, in poverty and unable to pay the rent or mortgage. Delaying these tax cuts means delaying the ability for tens of millions of Americans to fulfill the promise of the American dream.

It's time to lay a marker in the sand. I'm putting the GOP on notice. No more excuses, no more explanations. Go to work, roll up your sleeves and do your job.

There is no excuse for not having a plan to repeal or replace ObamaCare. There's no excuse for not having a tax cut plan. There's no excuse for not having a plan so we become energy independent or a plan to reduce or size and influence of government. You have the House, you have the Senate, you have a president that wants to move fast on everything the American people have spent years begging for.

We have a president now moving at the speed of light. Republicans in Congress need to keep up or go back to wherever they came from.

Adapted from Sean Hannitys monologue on Hannity, Feb. 9, 2017

Sean Hannity currently serves as host of FOX News Channel's (FNC) Hannity (weekdays 10-11PM/ET). He joined the network in 1996 and is based in New York. Click here for more information on Sean Hannity.

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Sean Hannity: Lazy Republicans need to get up to Trump speed, or out of the way - Fox News

Congress

A group of former House Democratic staffers wanted to channel their post-election grief. They never imagined what would happen next.

By Elana Schor and Rachael Bade

02/10/17 05:11 AM EST

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich Hill Republicans are openly accusing liberal mega-donors of bankrolling the tide of local protesters storming their offices. Theyre beefing up their physical protection from demonstrators. And theyre imploring out-of-state critics to stop clogging their phone lines.

Its just yelling and criticizing. There is no substance, said Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.). Its a protest against the election.

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To which Angel Padilla, a co-founder of the group organizing the demonstrations that have spread across the country in a matter of weeks, had this to say: You'd better get used to it.

"We want to pressure these members of Congress for as long as we have this president, Padilla said.

Dubbed Indivisible, the group launched as a way for Padilla and a handful of fellow ex-Democratic aides to channel their post-election heartbreak into a manual for quashing President Donald Trumps agenda. They drafted a 26-page protest guide for activists, full of pointers on how to bird dog their members of Congress in the language of Capitol insiders.

The booklet concludes with a stirring promise to fellow Trump enemies: Good luck we will win.

The group isnt planning to limit itself to the town-hall resistance to repealing Obamacare that its becoming known for. Indivisible has marshaled demonstrations against Trumps Cabinet nominees and his immigration order, and its partnering with the organizers of the Jan. 21 Womens March for a new action next week.

Its handful of senior leaders count about 100 contributors to their national organizing work but insist that all are working on a volunteer basis. They know conservatives are spreading unfounded rumors that their success is being driven by wealthy donors like George Soros, which they flatly deny.

It doesnt matter who we take money from were always going to get blamed as a Soros group, even if we dont take money from Soros, said Padilla, now an analyst with the National Immigration Law Center. Thats one of the attacks and thats fine.

The group began when Ezra Levin, a former aide to Texas Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, commiserated over the election in late November with his wife Leah Greenberg, a longtime aide to ex-Virginia Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello. The couple was going through the stages of grief, like a lot of progressives, Levin recalled in an interview, and wanted to do what we could to help.

They got to work on what became the "Indivisible Guide," billed as a set of best practices for making Congress listen. The manual borrows openly from the early tactics of the Tea Party, which sprouted on the strength of local conservative resistance to former President Barack Obamas hefty government stimulus bill and health care reform plan.

Trump is not popular, the guide states. He does not have a mandate. He does not have large congressional majorities. If a small minority in the Tea Party could stop President Obama, then we the majority can stop a petty tyrant named Trump.

The Indivisible manual is often blunt about what it says members of Congress really tick and how protesters might use it to their advantage. One chart compares what "your MoC cares a lot about" (an example: "an interest group's endorsement") vs. what a lawmaker "doesn't care much about" (for one, "your thoughtful analysis of the proposed bill").

Levin, Greenberg, Padilla, and another former Doggett aide, Jeremy Haile, continued tweaking the guide even as their burgeoning effort mushroomed a full-fledged movement. About two dozen veteran Hill staffers and activists contributed or edited the guide in some way since that November first draft, according to Levin.

While the millions-strong turnout for anti-Trump Womens Marches captured the nation last month, the Indivisible founders were conscious of the need for protest tactics that could truly force members of Congress to pay attention or risk losing their seats.

Marches are great to bring people together, but our experience as congressional staffers had taught us that energy needed to be channeled in a smart way to make a difference on Capitol Hill, Haile said.

Indivisible's founders never planned or expected the groundswell of interest that resulted from their guide, which prompted them to organize as a 501(c)4 group this month. "The last thing the progressive ecosystem really needed was yet another nonprofit," Levin said.

But Indivisible's guide has spread at the grassroots level at an unpredictable speed this year, with the help of other liberal groups amplifying its message. Less than two months after the group launched its website, 225,000 interested participants have registered to learn more, according to Levin.

It helped that Doggett was one of the first Democrats targeted by the tea party in the summer of 2009. During one of his routine Saturday morning office hours that August, hundreds of local conservative activists showed up wearing Revolutionary War costumes, Haile recalled. They chanted and jeered while carrying tombstones and coffins, and the chaotic scene caught the attention of the national media. Doggett required an escort to leave his own event that day.

Fast forward to last weekend. Police escorted Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) out of his own town hall meeting after a local Indivisible chapter joined other progressive groups to protest it.

When the tea party began rattling lawmakers with local disruptions, Haile explained, what mattered was this sense around the members that their constituents were unhappy. And what that is did is create discontent around Congress but also energized angry people who said, 'Im angry; were angry; and if we join together we can make a difference and get members of Congress to change their positions.'

That alignment of protesters galvanized by many different issues is a linchpin of Indivisibles early success. The group doesnt have a core policy mission: some chapters protest in defense of Obamacare; others embrace criminal justice reform or rally against Trumps controversial travel ban.

Chapters dont even have to call themselves Indivisible. Levin estimated that no more than 40 percent of the 6,200 local affiliates registered on the groups website use the name.

The organizers of Indivisible Grand Rapids, for example, hadnt spoken to any original drafters in Washington before they helped marshal a crowd of several hundred to a Thursday night town hall meeting held by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.). Chapter leaders explained to POLITICO that theyd heard about the movement through friends, visited the website to register themselves, then found others registered in their area who wanted to start a group.

The Michiganders downloaded the Indivisible guide and started a Facebook group in mid-January. The group now includes more than 300 people, a third of whom are registered for a Sunday training session on how to approach lawmakers.

Its important for us that we rise above; we dont want to be depicted in any way as only being an angry mob, and were not, said Claire Bode, 49, the co-founder of Indivisible Grand Rapids. Its a long-haul effort.

Indivisible is also embracing collaboration with other major anti-Trump protest outlets. Leaders of the group were in communication with Womens March organizers before their main event on Jan. 21, and that partnership will become official when the March unveils the third in its series of 10 direct actions that attendees have been asked to pursue in their communities.

In addition, MoveOn.org and the Working Families Party joined with Indivisible for its first nationwide call on Jan. 22. Nearly 60,000 people phoned in that day, according to Levin and MoveOn organizing director Victoria Kaplan. Indivisible estimates that its second national call, on the impact of Trumps immigration order with assistance from the ACLU and Padillas group, drew 35,000 people.

Kaplan said MoveOn plans to team up again with Indivisible ahead of the Presidents' Day recess week. They want to help to major local chapters organize demonstrations while lawmakers are back home in their districts.

The White House has aggressively pushed back at any comparisons between the new Indivisible-boosted efforts and the tea party. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told Fox News on Monday that the anti-Obama conservative opposition was a very organic movement but the rippling wave of liberal protest is a very paid, Astroturf-type movement.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) sounded a similar note in an interview. I think its going to be a demonstration a week until they run out of funding, he said, predicting that they will incrementally die off.

It doesn't look like that will happen soon. Two House Republican chairmen faced fierce pushback at town halls in their districts on Thursday night, with budget committee chairwoman Rep. Diane Black fielding tough questions on the partys lack of a united plan to replace Obamacare and oversight committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz shouted down by furious boos.

Organizers at the Amash town hall said they're in it for the long haul. At the event in Grand Rapids, Mich., they passed out pamphlets encouraging attendees to "boo when he falls back on regressive values."

And they recruited the best interrogators in the crowd to join their cause.

"Do you mind if I grab your contact information?" group organizer Colin McWatters asked one Amash constituent who grilled the lawmaker about GOP plans to repeal Obamacare.

The constituent signed up.

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Inside the protest movement that has Republicans reeling - POLITICO - Politico

It is obviously very early in the 115th Congress, but its easy enough to look back and compare where the Republican government is today with where previous unified governments were in the past.

By this time in 2009, Obama had expanded the State Childrens Health Insurance Program to cover more children in families living near poverty, and had signed legislation making it easier for women suffering from pay discrimination to file lawsuits. By February 17, he had signed an $800 billion economic rescue bill, and his congressional caucuses were aligned in principle behind the health care reform architecture that ultimately became Obamacare. He had filled nearly every cabinet vacancy, with people who were qualified to run their respective departments, and none of his executive orders had triggered global crisis or destroyed the countrys credibility.

The Bush administration had a slower start, but this was at least partially attributable to the fact that Bushs transition didnt begin until after the Supreme Court had installed him into the presidency in mid-December. By June, hed passed a large income tax cut, with modest bipartisan support.

Trump has thus far signed one bill: to exempt his secretary of defense from the law prohibiting commissioned officers from running the Pentagon unless theyve been retired for seven or more years. As youd expect of any Republican White House, his aides are drawing up plans to deregulate polluters and financial practicesdoing the kinds of things that have Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying there is a high level of satisfaction with the new administration.

This is another way of saying Republicans on the Hill are getting some things they want.

But they are also getting to cast votes on the worst, most unqualified, and corrupt cabinet in modern history. They are getting to answer for Trumps broadsides against the judiciary, and to clean up his disastrous ad hoc haranguing of American allies. They are getting to pretend McConnells decision to discipline Senator Elizabeth Warren for quoting Coretta Scott Kings criticism of Jeff Sessionsin the middle of black history monthwas a stroke of genius. (Corralling nearly every Republican senator to vote for that censure was apparently part of that master plan.) They are getting to make excuses for Trumps undisguised efforts to enrich himself and his family. And theyre getting to do all this as members of the most important national institution to fully corrupt itself on Trumps behalf. (Democrats, judges, consumer brands, civil society organizations, and government bureaucrats, have all conducted themselves with enough basic integrity to preserve a glimmer of hope that Trump cant just shamble Kool-Aid man-style through the entire social fabric.)

Its possible that a major payoff awaits the GOP. Perhaps they really will repeal and replace Obamacare before the end of the year, even though, according to Senator Bob Corker, theres not any real discussion taking place right now. They seem no closer to a major supply-side tax reform or infrastructure bill or welfare rollback either.

Republicans will presumably fill the Supreme Courts vacancy in the coming weeks, but that is less a dividend Trump is paying them than one they carried over themselves from the last Congress. And their nominee, Neil Gorsuch, is already condemning Trump in closed door meetings with Democratic senators.

Trump, meanwhile, is about as unpopular now as Bush was in late 2005before the Democratic Partys midterm landslide in 2006, but after he had locked in his biggest legislative accomplishments. Republicans made a Faustian bargain with the president, and theyre in the process of getting stiffed. Its just unclear why they thought Trump would treat them any differently than anyone else hes partnered with.

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The Republicans Are Off to a Pitiful Start - New Republic