"...the GOP appears checkmated."

Mental fibrillation all over Republican land.

will be approved with at least 85 votes. Senatorial privilege and all.

Few Dems will oppose the President's nominee, and I doubt any Republicans will. If the President nominates him, he sails to confirmation.

this shit has never happened like this before.

This president is being treated, sorry for being blut and unpolished, but completely accurate, like a bitch over it.

Dig your heels, either they pass it straight or you use whatever options you have.

And, despite all of this usual teenage bravado over it, the republicans don't have jack for a "hand" on it.

Everyone will know and blame them for defaulting us just like they would have if they did not allow a deal to get done this week.

But, these are democrats, so being pushed around is where they come home, so you never know.

Now, the sequester or government funding bill ... THAT is where things are going to get ugly, and people here will have to be prepared for some shit to go down that they won't like one big.

And no matter how hard they get slapped every time, they come back for more. Republicans have battered woman's syndrome. And I don't say that lightly or jokingly.

They should have had a nap and perhaps a snack, but now they gotten themselves into so much trouble they need a serious time out where they can cry themselves to sleep.

It does nothing to appease their whining at this point, they cannot be reasoned with. They are completely irrational.

Maybe after they go to sleep (for twenty years) we can listen to what they say again...after they apologize for what they did.