Why James Lankford thinks he can secure the border, aid Ukraine, and win Democratic vote

Again in October, Joe Biden was a easy, seemingly intelligent, deal: tie support to Ukraine and support to Israel collectively.

The Republicans who opposed support to Ukraine all supported support to Israel so they’d maintain their noses and vote for the entire package deal.

The Democrats who opposed support to Israel all supported support to Ukraine so they’d do the identical.

(As a aspect observe: everybody appears OK with the third large chunk of international support within the supplemental: cash to advance US pursuits within the Indo-Pacific.)

However then Senate Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, countered Biden’s opening transfer: They united across the thought of requiring modifications to frame safety coverage to unlock any of this international support.

So now, three of probably the most contentious points in American politics are locked collectively in a type of legislative Mexican standoff.

The person on the middle of defusing this case is Sen. James Lankford, a Baptist preacher from Oklahoma who’s the lead Republican negotiating a bit of laws that offers each congressional faction a cause to hate it.

Bernie Sanders is main a revolt on the left to oppose support to Israel.

Lankford estimates that there are about ten Republicans who gained’t assist support to Ukraine it doesn’t matter what.

After which there’s the border safety compromise he’s attempting to achieve with a bunch of Democrats led by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

A gaggle of Senate Democrats who’re historically leaders on immigration reform have been vocally against the path of the Lankford-Murphy talks.

A gaggle of Senate Republicans are aligned with their Home colleagues and say they may not assist border safety modifications wanting the extremely restrictionist laws generally known as HR 2.

On the finish of a tumultuous week when it appeared cheap to foretell legislative failure, Lankford picked up a glass of iced skim milk — sure, iced skim milk — and led Deep Dive host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza via the the explanation why he’s much more optimistic than anybody else in Washington.

Of their dialog, he concurrently scolded the press for declaring the talks lifeless, criticized Home GOP leaders for demanding an excessive amount of and even had some constructive issues to say about Joe Biden’s dedication to frame enforcement.

For all of the doubters, together with those that marvel how the destiny of American international coverage is immediately within the palms of somebody who has by no means negotiated a giant bipartisan deal, he has a easy message: Failure isn’t an possibility.