In what is a very perplexing political maneuver*, Republicans are doing their damnedest to make it difficult for Democrats to cave in the shutdown fight. The latest insult to intelligence is an attempt to add an abortion ban to any continuing resolution, meaning an abortion ban would be the price for reopening the government.

If Republicans are going to do that, then Democrats should demand that the continuing resolution contain a provision to release the Epstein files. Not only is that, unlike an abortion ban, actually popular, but it shows Republicans that bad faith behavior will be rewarded in kind. Of course, the chickenshit caucus in the Senate Democrats will never go for this, but a boy can dream, can’t he?

*I’ll have more to say about this later in the week, but it does make sense if one assumes that ten to twenty percent of Senate Democrats will always capitulate, which a bunch of them are considering doing. Note this is a problem bigger than Schumer.