Chuck and Nancy.

He called them, “Chuck and Nancy.”

There’s an original Star Trek episode in which Spock senses that a starship manned entirely by Vulcans has been destroyed because his telepathic mind heard their “death scream.” I think I just had that same experience, except I believe I heard the Republicans in Congress.

Chuck and Nancy.

Classic.

From Politico:

Republicans left the Oval Office Wednesday stunned. Trump had quickly sided with Democrats on a short-term debt ceiling increase, even overruling his own Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to concur with "Chuck and Nancy," as he later called them on Air Force One. But Trump defied more than his top aides. He turned on Republican leaders in Congress when he caved to Democrats’ demands to raise the debt limit and fund the government for three months, setting up a brutal year-end fiscal cliff. The move shocked everyone, as top White House officials and GOP leaders had been gearing up to raise the debt ceiling through the 2018 midterm election, looking to pass legislation as soon as Friday. But even after Mnuchin, Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back on the Democratic demands in the meeting, Trump agreed to the three-month deal that will also head off the possibility of a government shutdown until mid-December.

How doth he screw them? Let me count the ways.

First: It’s the right thing to do. At this waterlogged moment, with one city drowned and another state in the meteorological crosshairs, this is no time for more idiocy about the debt ceiling.

Getty Images

Second: He cut the legs out from under McConnell and Ryan while, at the same, sticking them with a Hobson’s choice of either going along with this altogether sensible temporary fix or getting rolled by the flying monkeys in their own caucus. And vulnerable Republicans are in an even tighter vise re: the 2018 midterms. If I had a handlebar mustache, I’d twirl it.

Third: Speaking of the latter, the frenzy among the Freedom Caucus types is going to be a sight to see.

And that’s just what’s going to happen today. The next 12 legislative days are going to lack only the Hendersons and a waltzing horse to be a proper circus.

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Also, and not for nothing, but I hope Democratic congresscritters like Tim Ryan and Seth Moulton—as well as the more enthusiastic of the YouTube Left—can mellow out about Pelosi for a while. There was a reason why conservative media outlets were stoking the rebellion against her in the wake of last November’s election. Put simply, she’s still light-years ahead of anyone the Republicans have in the Congress and, as is now plain, she can play the president* like a tin fiddle as well. (Yes, Chuck Schumer gets equal props here, too.) She rolled into his home field and helped kick some serious ass around the block.

Chuck and Nancy.

And Donald.

It is not seemly in a man my age to giggle this much.

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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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