The times they are a-slowly changing

This is what change looks like.

A past President here, a couple senators there. But it is at least, let’s hope, a beginning.

It takes a lot for a former president, especially of the same party, to say what George W. Bush said last week about our politics today and the condition of our country’s leadership. Without mentioning a name, Bush got his message across clearly.

And maybe, for the moment, it takes giving up on reelection for a senator of the same party to say what Bob Corker and Jeff Flake have been saying, topped off yesterday by in comments by both. But our country and politics do not move swiftly, and that’s served us well for a couple hundred years.

No sense repeating what Flake and Corker said here, most folks by now have seen snippets and many read Flake’s full text from his floor speech.

Maybe their political courage came from uncorking the bottle of their reelection plans but they still are sitting senators who now are free of their party loyalties and binds to do and vote for what they think is right.

If you add in Sen. John McCain and if you assume they will vote as a block against Trump (which I don’t), then he doesn’t have the votes to get anything through the Senate without the unlikely assistance of Democratic votes.

Personally, I think the three wise men in the senate likely now will vote against what Trump is for primarily because they will have problems with parts of his tax bill, seemingly Trump’s last best hope for redemption this year. And Trump will be in a position to deal with these three senators if he wants their votes – setting up what could be interesting legislative times ahead.

And if you add in senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, my guess is there are three votes among those five on most issues Trump wants passed. Which means a lot of wheeling and dealing is in our future. That is if Trump displays the desire to demonstrate to us all his self-acclaimed skills as the best negotiator around.

Even if more sitting senators come out and said things similar to Flake’s comments yesterday, it doesn’t mean they can end the Trump presidency. It may be fatally unable to get anything done, but he will still be the President of the United States, and still will have a free-er hand at foreign policy. Of course, having the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee against you isn’t a big help.

Change is slow…then again, we are only nine months into Trump’s presidency and he is losing senators. He and his people will claim these departures as wins because they think that gives them a better chance to replace them with their own kind.

Time will tell. For now, let’s enjoy this time.