There are two problems with this:
1. Words matter; this isn’t doing nothing.
2. “Use your power” is trickier here than it appears. “If you don’t stop doing things I disapprove of, I will stop doing things I really want that you don’t really care about” isn’t huge leverage.
1. Words matter; this isn’t doing nothing.
2. “Use your power” is trickier here than it appears. “If you don’t stop doing things I disapprove of, I will stop doing things I really want that you don’t really care about” isn’t huge leverage.
And that’s the rub. *Most* of what Sasse could leverage is trying to withhold legislation/confirmations that the GOP really cares about, but Trump is lukewarm on at best.
They have already neutered the non-GOP Trump legislative agenda, via inaction.
nationalreview.com/2018/04/trump-…
They have already neutered the non-GOP Trump legislative agenda, via inaction.
nationalreview.com/2018/04/trump-…
There are exceptions, but most of them are positive legislation: killing the Trump tariffs, for example, probably is not something Sasse can leverage alone. Given some Dems like tariffs, he’d probably need a coalition. And to override a plausible veto, he’d definitely need one.
The things Sasse can do by siding with the Dems are mostly negative agenda control: dump a confirmation or block some legislation. But Sasse *likes* the legislation and confirmations coming out of the Senate, more so than Trump does in most cases. Bad leverage.
That said, he might get traction trying to get some more serious oversight going. That might be plausible. And yes, he could fall on his representative sword and block Kavanaugh, but if it’s that sort of Profile in Courage you want, it’s sort of a fantasy.
Its’ just really hard to come up with concrete things that Sasse could do, unilaterally, that hurt POTUS more than they hurt Sasse.
One thing he can do is informally constrain the actions of POTUS, via his words.
One thing he can do is informally constrain the actions of POTUS, via his words.
