text: And this is what makes it tough for Republicans to pass legislation. Unless they make the bill mean and draconian enough to please the likes of Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and the rest of the wild-eyed kooks on the far right, it won't pass. If they make it mean enough to please those whackos they piss off the relatively-sane 'moderate' republicans whose votes they then lose.
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  Of course, in the middle of this are all the soulless squishes like Dan Sullivan who will vote however Mitch McConnell says to vote. Meanwhile, Lisa Murkowski is trying to figure out how to play both sides of the fence.