That’s at the core of a set of remarks by Sen. Bob Corker that have captured a good deal of attention over the past 24 hours, characterizing the curious relationship between the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman and his fellow Republican lawmakers and a president “purportedly,” in Corker’s words, of the same party.

The Tennessee Republican said the party’s traditional views on such matters as trade are “quite divergent” from where the party has been guided under the administration of President Donald Trump, which, Corker told NBC, is “making stuff up as they go along” with “no coherency” among the positions taken, and yet lawmakers fear following their consciences and formerly espoused policy preferences.

“It’s not a good place for us to be,” said Corker, placing the bulk of the blame for the current state of affairs on “leadership in general,” which, he said, “is wary of doing anything that might upset the president” — he had invoked the phrase “poke the bear” in an earlier variation on these public statements — such as, in the immediate term, not taking up a Corker amendment to limit executive-branch power to impose trade tariffs.

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