One of the more convenient aspects of talking about this awful government shutdown is that what is usually the most hotly-contested issue whenever Something Bad happens in Washington—the assignment of blame—has already been resolved in very public fashion. Even before the shutdown began, President Trump proclaimed that he would be "proud" to own its consequences. "I will take the mantle of shutting it down," he promised, as cameras rolled and Chuck Schumer failed to contain his obvious glee. "I will shut it down for border security."

The president's willing acceptance of culpability, however, has allowed another individual—the third of the three elected officials with a role in ending this debacle—to avoid the level of scrutiny his actions merit. The fact that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, to this point, has managed to keep him name mostly out of the debate is a tribute to his congenital dishonesty, unquenchable thirst for power, or some combination thereof.

This bears repeating every day until the government is open: Less than 24 hours before the shutdown, by voice vote, McConnell's Republican-controlled Senate passed a then-uncontroversial bill that did not contain wall money to fund the government through February 8. The next day, all the country's worst right-wing media personalities crawled inside Donald Trump's ear and worked him into a frothy rage, and to spare the president the humiliation of having to fight a spending bill passed by his own party, disgraced lickspittle Paul Ryan decided not to bring the bill to the House floor. The shutdown began shortly thereafter.

Again: The Senate passed a continuing resolution by a vote of, effectively, 100-0, which means that every single Republican senator had concluded that their party need not shut down the government over the border wall. (Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi briefly made this point last night, but since they chose to present themselves on TV as a Capitol Hill update to American Gothic, it may have eluded its intended audience.) Only two things have changed since that unanimous vote: First, Democrats control the House, which means that Ryan's spinelessness is no longer an obstacle to holding votes. And second, Donald Trump told them McConnell he wouldn't sign any bill that doesn't include wall funding, and so McConnell has pretended to forget all about it.

On the rare occasions he has been asked about this sudden bout of amnesia, McConnell has argued that as Senate majority leader, his hands are tied. "The Senate will not waste its time," he explained on January 2, with a bill that "the President will not sign." Two days later, from the Senate floor, he added: "Making laws takes a presidential signature. We all learned that in grade school."