Mild Mannered Woman from Washington is the Democrats Deadliest Weapon: Huff Post [View all]

[Stuart G]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-mild-mannered-woman-from-washington-is-the-democrats-deadliest-weapon_us_58a77653e4b037d17d27d494?i0uvy851s241b57b9&

2/18/2017, 10:24am ET
By Michael McAuliff

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Patty Murray (D-Wash.) compared the Republicans in the House to the preschoolers she once taught. To deal with a bunch of fractious, obstreperous 4-year-olds, she said, you need a plan.

When Murray made her comparison, she was about to sit down with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in what turned out to be the only significant successful bipartisan budget negotiation Congress has managed since the shutdown.

Four years later, the House is still roiled by a crowd of sharp-elbowed and feuding Republican lawmakers who can’t agree even on how to do the one thing they all say they want ― repeal Obamacare. But now, there’s a new alpha boy atop their playground monkey bars.

President Donald Trump outdid them all, belittling, bullying and insulting his way to the Oval Office.

Murray is familiar with the personality type.

“There is a bully in every classroom,” Murray said this week. “And the best way to teach other children in your preschool class that it’s not OK is to make it not OK.”

That is precisely what Murray and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are trying to do. Since there are only 48 senators on their side of the ledger, they lack the votes to beat back Trump and a raft of nominees that Democrats see as historically awful. What they can do is show the country and their Republican colleagues that it’s not OK. Murray is turning out to be Schumer’s deadliest weapon in that fight.