Link , Link , Link , Link , Link , Link , Link , ["McConnell isn’t toying with Democrats to test the limits of their appetite for humiliation; he’s doing it because he senses that it’s bottomless."], [It’s why Republicans are maximalists in just about every circumstance—even when dialing it down a bit would serve their interests best—and Democrats fret over the importance of consensus even when the people on the other end of the olive branch want them dead. ]