With votes scheduled, Washington searches for way out of shutdown

But for all the noise and insults, everyone on both sides knows that the pair of Senate votes will almost certainly fail on partisan lines — and are more a chance to vent political steam than to break the gridlock. So, barring some kind of miraculous capitulation by the President or his newly empowered Democratic opponents, nothing that happens over the next few days is likely to result in the impasse being solved.

But the Senate often works in mysterious ways.

Once the choreography has played out, and each side has killed the other’s preferred solution, there’s just a chance that a behind-the-scenes huddle among key leaders in the Democratic House and Republican Senate could figure out an escape route.

At least that’s how standoffs between each end of Pennsylvania Avenue usually end. But given Trump’s impetuous nature — and his sudden decision to trigger the partial government shutdown in the first place — it’s anyone’s guess if the normal rules of the road will apply.

If the Senate’s tactic of taking two steps backward to go one forward seems absurd, a feud over the State of the Union address, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has told Trump to forget while government is partially shuttered, stretches credulity even more.

The White House asked for — but was not granted — a walk-through by the House sergeant-at-arms ahead of the address, which was supposed to take place next Tuesday, seeming to suggest Trump might try to show up anyway.

Since storming into the chamber without Pelosi’s permission would ignite a constitutional imbroglio, Trump is also thinking of going out of town, to give a State of the Union address to his supporters — or somewhat short of half of the union — at a campaign-style rally.