Poor Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. It appears the pressure has gotten to him; how else do you explain his statement "looking forward to" Trump's address to Congress?
“I think for virtually all Republicans, the chance to actually do things we felt would move the country in the right direction and have the President sign them into law is a pretty exciting prospect, so we're looking forward to a positive, upbeat presentation tomorrow night,” McConnell said, “and then proceeding with our agenda, which is exactly the same as the Trump agenda.”
Two things, here. First, Donald Freaking Trump has never given a "positive, upbeat presentation" in his life, so if that's what Senior Mutant Ninja Senator is "looking forward" to seeing, he may want to watch Trump's speech with an open bottle of malt liquor in his hands. Expect the first third of the speech to be an extended Trump oratory on his own greatness, followed by at least twenty more minutes of declaring that his inauguration crowds were indeed as bigly as he previously claimed them to be so everyone needs to shut up.
Second, the move to declare that the Republican-led Senate's agenda is "exactly the same as the Trump agenda" is a hell of a move. So Trump's new pro-Putin stance is official Republican policy? His promises about Obamacare replacements that cover everybody—those are now fully operative? What about the racism? The “millions” of promised deportations? The cavalier new approach to mixing government and for-profit business? The declaration that the free press is an enemy to the people?
All right then. According to Sen. Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader, the "Trump agenda" is now 100 percent Republican policy. That was easy; a new nationalistic leader rolls in, and the new official party position is "whatever Dear Leader now says it is."
Well, it's not like they've lost very much. Republicans made a valiant stab, after 2012, to figure out just what the party stood for and how they could separate themselves from the rampant racism and misogyny that defined the party in the minds of most voters. But then the racist misogynist actually won by saying all the racist, misogynistic things louder than any of the previous candidates dared, and the very same Reince Priebus of the party that fretted about where to go from here all but trampled over each other in an effort to hug the new guy saying those things.
Got it. Trumpism is Republicanism, and Republicanism is Trump. Thank you, Sen. McConnell, for clearing that up for us—and for so concisely stating the theme of the upcoming 2018 campaign.