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Aloha and namaste everyone and welcome to Empaithic with John Heilman, a puck and Odyssey joint,

featuring lively and depth conversations with the people who roam the quarters of power and influence in America

weaving the warp and weft of our politics and culture.

On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the well of the upper chamber and proclaimed emphatically that his caucus was united against the Stop Gap funding bill passed by the House a day earlier to keep the federal government open for business through September 30th, a bill that bears Donald Trump's seal of

approval that every House Republican except for one had voted for and every Democrat, except for

one, had voted against, a bill that most of Schumer's caucus opposed to, and a bill that

activist groups and the broad base of the party were agitating

vociferously against seeing the fight to block the Republican continuing resolution

as a rare opportunity for congressional Democrats to exercise what little leverage they have

over Trump and the GOP, a fight worth fighting.

In other words, despite the queasy making unpredictability and considerable political risks

entailed in shutting down the government.

And therefore, a fight that would also be the first real test of their sides' intestinal

and, let's be blunt about it, testicular fortitude.

Then, on Thursday, less than 24 hours later, Chuck Schumer took to the well of the Senate

again, and in the eyes of countless Democrats in Washington and across the country, essentially

declared himself a nutless wonder, announcing that he would support

the very Republican bill he had denounced a day earlier. And although Schumer and John

Federman are at this hour the only two Senate Democrats openly stating that they'll support

...