By Ray Cardello for November 11, 2025, Season 33 / Post 17

First, Nancy Pelosi realized that she was done years ago, but it just dawned on her that she should take her ill-gotten gains and retire before she is investigated. Nancy will not be seeking reelection in 2026. Then, in a beautiful game of 3D chess, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries thought they had the Republicans right where they wanted them, only to be outmaneuvered by the Republicans, and they are now Targets #1 and #2 of Democrat leadership. The Democrat members of Congress have seen enough of Hakeem and Chuck to know their period of usefulness is past, and it is time for a course correction.

After the longest government shutdown in history, the Republicans saw an opportunity and seized it. By getting a successful rule change passed on Sunday to forgo the requirement for a super-majority on a budget bill, and getting at least eight Democratic members to cross the aisle and vote in sync with the Republicans, the Right paved a way to stop this Democratic Shutdown. And along that path, the plan that the Democrats had to get the Republicans to yield on healthcare for illegals went down the drain. The Democrats had been duped at their own game.

The Democrats were scrambling, and the anger was palpable. Most of the Democratic Senators were splitting their angst between the eight defectors who made the Republican plan work and the Republicans who took back the momentum.

For forty-plus days, Schumer, Jeffries, and the media were in sync with the storyline that this was a Republican shutdown. In a Sunday afternoon, the Republicans blew the cover off that collusion. It was now obvious that the shutdown was under Schumer’s control, and word was out of conversations between Schumer and some of his moderate members, in which he asked them not to give in to pressure to reopen the government. This was all the proof needed to understand who owned this shutdown.

Calls are out by members of the Senate and the House, to replace Schumer and Jeffries, claiming they could no longer lead or represent the minority party in either chamber. Schumer was still getting in front of every camera, still trying to lay blame on the Republicans. This scenario had shifted quickly to now, the Republicans held all of the picture cards, and Schumer and Jeffries had no control, no leverage, and the Republicans were solidly in charge.

Speaker Johnson has a call out to all House members to return to Washington as quickly as possible to vote on the bill once it clears the Senate.` The events of the last few days are splitting the Democratic Party. They do not have a viable leader, they have no fresh ideas, and their Party was just embarrassed by Johnson and Thune. They got nothing from the Democrats, and they now have to answer to their constituents as to what the game plan was that went awry.