The shadow play closed quickly. Neither bill to fully reopen the government passed the Senate on Thursday, to the surprise of absolutely nobody. The Republican bill, which included $5.7 billion for the big, beautiful stupid wall, scored 50-47, and the Democratic bill, that did not include funding for the wall, got more votes—Hi, Mitch!—scoring 52-44. Neither one got the 60 votes needed to pass. So the shutdown continues, and the stories about government employees' standing in line at food pantries pile up, and the warnings from the nation's air-traffic controllers grow more dire, and the pressure mounts on someone to do something. I would not go too long on the fact that five Republicans voted for the Democratic bill, including Willard Romney, the junior senator from Utah.

The three surprises—Romney, Lamar Alexander, and Johnny Isakson—all are uniquely immune to Trumpian intimidation. Romney, because of who he is, and Alexander and Isakson because they're at the end of their careers. However, there seem to be more cracks in the Republican caucus than in the Democratic one, Joe Manchin of West Virginia being the only Democrat to support the president*'s bill. In addition, the Republican administration seems to be cracking up.

Wilbur Ross, the Secretary of Commerce, and Lara Trump, the president*'s non-discarded daughter-in-law, both ran Marie Antoinette riffs in the face of human misery. Ross, a very underrated weasel in a pack of them, was the worse of the two. Asked about the fact that the furloughed employees are now facing their second missed paycheck, Ross replied, according to The New York Times:

“The obligations that they would undertake — say borrowing from a bank or credit union — are in effect federally guaranteed,” Mr. Ross told CNBC on Thursday morning. “So the 30 days of pay that people will be out — there’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan against it, and we’ve seen a number of ads from the financial institutions doing that.” Mr. Ross said some banks and credit unions had offered low-interest loans to affected workers, and suggested that workers should be using those services rather than visiting food banks or shelters. “When you think about it, these are basically government-guaranteed loans, because the government has committed,” he said. “These folks will get their back pay once this whole thing gets settled down.”

Government work as company store, with payday lenders as the Department of the Treasury. Who the hell are these people? Alexander Hamilton weeps.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross Getty Images

Put that together with the president*'s sudden capitulation on his State of the Union address, and you get the unmistakable impression that the administration* has reached that point in the Looney Tune where it's gone off the edge of the cliff, and its feet are vainly spinning in the air to keep from falling into the canyon. Acme Politics Inc. is out of new equipment. Winging it doesn't cut it against one story of trouble and woe after another, on every local TV station, all over the country. And even such temperate souls as Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, are completely fed up with people like Tailgunner Ted Cruz.

There's an awful political bill piling up behind this. People are feeling the fearsome weight of it.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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