Can't Blame Putin for This

Read "Senate Democrats’ Vote to End Shutdown Infuriates Some on the Left" by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns:

WASHINGTON — The decision by Senate Democrats to end the government shutdown on Monday in exchange for a promised immigration vote enraged liberals, who accused the lawmakers of betrayal and threatened to mount primaries against some of the Democrats who voted yes.

Regardless of what happens in the Senate, progressive and immigrant advocacy groups said House Republican leaders will never take up a bill that would offer legal status to young undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children without excruciating concessions on other immigration issues. They accused Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, and moderate Democratic senators of capitulating to protect senators up for re-election in November in Republican-leaning states.

“They blinked because they’ll always put the party and the success of the party first,” said Representative Luis V. Gutiérrez of Illinois, one of the leading Democratic advocates for immigrants, complaining that Hispanics got short shrift. “It’s the one word they know in Spanish: mañana.”

The hasty retreat by 33 Senate Democrats was particularly humiliating in the immediate aftermath of the anniversary of the Women’s March, which saw thousands of activists reconvene in cities across the country to protest against President Trump and congressional Republicans. Liberal groups such as MoveOn.org began urging members to sign up on Monday for rallies aimed at pressuring Republicans to protect the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.

By noon, their own ostensible allies in Congress had buckled.

Trump and the GOP have convincingly won this round.  The bloodletting within the Democratic Party which should have commenced immediately after Hillary's loss but instead was put off in favor of pursuing Russophobic fantasies should begin in earnest now. The Dems can't blame throwing the Dreamers under the bus on Vladimir Putin.

February 8 will come and the weak-kneed Dems will have to shut down the government again, further splitting the party. And with Russiagate imploding, Dems have no fallback.