I don't know what gives you the idea that a caucus leader should try to come between their caucus members and those members' voters, but I assure you there is no quicker route to no longer being caucus leader.

He absolutely could encourage and lead them. And maybe he did! But US Senators are famously prickly, jealous, petty, and resistant to doing anything they don't want to

I'll give this to Schumer, being a Senate leader is a very difficult and thankless job. (I still don't think he's very good at it)

"Nancy Pelosi would've..." yeah well, when we call someone a generational talent we mean someone that talented only comes along once in a generation.

I don't know if you read the reporting at the time but it's even wilder than it looks on the surface - it was Nico who approached Pelinka with the trade, and then Pelinka negotiated him down from the original offer!!!

Just stunning, generational stupidity.

Even today I'm not sure you could pay me enough to re-watch it.

Every time I see this post I'm reminded of the movie Miracle Mile which traumatized me as a young teen. (Temu version of The Day After)

The article isn’t quite as bad but that headline is WOOF.

I feel like I'm missing *a lot* of context for this and I'm not sure I wanna know.

Agreed. The RiF language is a real win (if it actually happens).

oh my god

They were definitely winning the messaging war, but they were doing it against an opponent that uniquely doesn't give a shit about polling numbers. So it didn't generate as much leverage as it might have 20-30 years ago.

this tactic doesn't have a great track record. It was always going to end in some version of this. Which means Senate Dems needed to manage expectations, or else the central point of the demonstration - demonstrating spine - would be for naught. They didn't manage expectations, & so here we are.