Subject: Re: Trump: I Would Encourage Russia...
LOL, no they weren't. They grabbed the GOPe contingent and cut out people like Ted Cruz who is, you know, actually from Texas. They also went and yanked it out of regular order and negotiated in secret. That's not good faith at all.

For the same reason that the Democrats aren't inviting Raul Grijalva into those negotiations, either. If you actually want to get to a deal - if you want to have a negotiation that might result in a bill that can pass - you're not going to bring in someone who will refuse to accept anything that the other side can agree to. You know you're not going to get 100% of your caucus to vote for the end product, so you negotiate the folks that you think can get you to a deal that can pass.

If you're just posturing and pretending, then of course you bring in a Ted Cruz - who can then pound the table about how he doesn't consider anything short of the most draconian measures as being "border security," and that what he and the GOP conservative base thinks qualify as "border security" are the only legitimate things that can be "border security." But then you won't ever get a deal.