Shape Up Or Get Out

            Republicans in Congress are starting to panic. And with good reason. President Trump is under siege by Democrats, Progressives, a legion of anonymous sources, and a media that a recent Harvard analysis shows is 93% anti-Trump. Worse, Trump’s base is wavering; his popularity polls among Republicans has fallen to around 70% and with the nation overall to the mid-30s. This is unprecedented for a president who should be enjoying a honeymoon, especially after an arguably superior start in delivering on the promises that got him elected.

            This means that even the President’s most ardent supporters are increasingly disillusioned. Congressmen facing re-election know that if the President’s base doesn’t show up at the polls in 2018, Democrats will take control of the House. They will blame Trump. And they will be right.

            What can the President do to halt this precipitous decline? Pulitzer Prize winner Peggy Noonan says in the Wall Street Journal that it would be a good idea if top Hill Republicans went en masse to the president and said: “Stop it. Clean up your act. Shut your mouth. Do your job. Stop tweeting. Stop seething. Stop wasting time. You lost the thread and don’t even know what you were elected to do anymore.” She goes on and ends with this: “Act like a president or leave the presidency.”

            Wow! It’s one thing for a rabid Maxine Waters to call for Trump’s impeachment. It’s quite another for a Republican advocate like Noonan to tell the President to shape up or get out. Or is she just putting into words what many his supporters are beginning to think?