“McConnell’s conference was furious with him after he made the deal, with Sen. Lindsey Graham calling it ‘a complete capitulation’ and Sen. Ted Cruz declaring that ‘Chuck Schumer won this game of chicken.’ Cruz – who is back in his own beloved game of pissing off his colleagues to build material for his next presidential run – insisted on Thursday on forcing a cloture vote, meaning Republican leadership had to scrounge up 10 votes to help Democrats break a filibuster (they got 11). So why did McConnell, in the short term at least, back off from his original insistence that Republicans wouldn’t help Democrats, and that Democrats needed to raise the debt limit through the filibuster-free reconciliation process? According to some members of his conference, McConnell was worried that the pressure on Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to nix the filibuster, at least in this specific case, might become too strong for them to resist.”

“If that’s the case, then McConnell – who is lauded for his ability to see every step of the game well in advance – might be losing his edge, because he surely should’ve seen that coming. The rage from his conference, though, as well as the difficulty Republicans had putting up votes to break a filibuster, suggests this monthslong strategy of refusing to help Dems wasn’t a McConnell offensive play so much as an act of desperation to keep a lid on divisions in his conference. McConnell swears he won’t do this on the next vote. But isn’t that what he said the last time?” – Slate.