On Day 20, the shutdown is all about political pain, not gain

[DonViejo]

First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

Jan. 10, 2019, 9:05 AM EST

By Chuck Todd and Carrie Dann

WASHINGTON — With the partial government shutdown now nearly assured to be the longest in modern political history, we’re still at a standstill. But rather than finding a way to compromise their way out of the mess, it’s starting to look like both sides are simply calculating how much more pain they can withstand.

After President Trump walked out of a meeting yesterday with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and called it “a total waste of time,” a resolution seems further than ever. And although there’s a trickle of Republicans breaking with the president on opening the government, the GOP generally seems to be sticking with their leadership for the moment despite private worry that theirs is the more untenable position.

Why? Check out how Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma framed it in an interview with our colleague John Harwood: “Pelosi and Schumer cannot obtain absolute victory unless we give it to them. As much as I detest government shutdowns, I do not think we will. And I do not think we should.”

So, it sure seems like the choice GOP lawmakers see is: Stick with Trump, or be branded as an ally of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. If it’s really that binary, we really are stuck.

But if the question is who can withstand more pain when it comes to political pressure and public opinion, all the signs we’ve seen (polling on the shutdown/wall, the midterm scoreboard, Trump approval), point to Democrats having the upper hand.

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