GOP/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Hours after Donald Trump sidled up to Vladimir Putin at their now-infamous news conference, Republican Sen. Bob Corker received a call from a prominent politician who pleaded with him to repudiate Trump — and to make it hurt this time. The politician, who is weighing a run against the president, urged the Foreign Relations Committee chairman to use his procedural leverage in the Senate to halt Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court as payback for Trump’s refusal on Monday [7-16-18] to acknowledge Russia’s election meddling. Nothing doing, the retiring senator responded. Corker is a standing member of a core group of Trump critics on Capitol Hill from his own party, who’ve knocked the president on everything from his warmth toward Russia to his refusal to condemn white nationalist groups to his tariffs against U.S. allies. But Democrats and some conservatives say the repeated chiding of Trump has had virtually no effect — the president routinely blows right past the criticism — and that it’s time for the wary Republican lawmakers to do something, not just say something. Any one senator, if he or she were willing to buck Trump and party leadership, could grind the chamber to a halt, vote down nominees or even threaten to switch caucuses. With Republicans currently holding a 51-49 advantage, it would take just two like-minded GOP senators to put Democrats in the majority.”
-Burgess Everett and Elana Schor, “Why Trump’s GOP critics never go nuclear,” Politico, July 17, 2018 7:11 pm