With the midterms just 42 days out, Senate Republicans are facing their own version of the House GOP's great escape — and they can't decide whether to stay and fight or just go home, according to new reporting.
"Anxious" Republicans see little chance of passing anything meaningful before Election Day and are stuck with a "fight or flight" choice, Politico reported on Wednesday.
House Republicans have already bailed on Washington until after the Nov. 3 vote, while the Senate spends this week on a bipartisan bill overhauling college sports — hardly the affordability fix voters are demanding as they increasingly blame President Donald Trump for their financial pain.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) summed up the party's paralysis when asked about cost-of-living legislation. "If there was something that we could get done that would help, I'd be all for it," Cramer said. "But I don't know what it would be at this point."
"Should they leave, Republican senators would be essentially standing pat with their legislative record, even with voters clamoring for more help while blaming Trump in a spate of recent polling," Politico reported.
Staying in town means senators must keep facing reporters' questions on the Iran war, soaring energy prices, Trump's White House media ban, and revelations a Russian oligarch bankrolled his son's wedding — "Trump-related controversies" GOP lawmakers would rather keep at arm's length.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) isn't ready to give up on legislating, though.
He called it "stupid" not to push through the procedural hurdles to get Sen. Jon Husted's college sports bill to a vote. "When moms and dads lie down and sleep at night, and can't, they're not lying there worried about the football coaches, they're worried about the cost of living," Kennedy said. "It's foolish both policy-wise and political-wise not to put it on the floor. … I wouldn't faint with surprise if Senator Thune said, 'Y'all go home.'"
The dilemma underscores just how thin the GOP's pre-election playbook has become with control of Congress on the line.