Former Justice Department spokesman, Matt Miller (as seen on television).
Miller's second point is more important than his first, since Trump would be just smart enough to postpone deportations until after the midterms. More pertinent is that the Dems went in to a knife fight they simply could not win. The longer they kept the government shuttered the longer Republicans earned the amplified adoration of their primitive base. What did the Rs have to lose? The GOP cares not a whit about government or good governance. They were content to keep Washington closed; they could just wait. it. out.
Now, however, the pressure of DACA will be on the Republican House. Not calling a DACA bill to the floor for a vote or even voting it down might be good internal Republican politics — but the midterms aren't internal elections. Everyone else — liberals, progressives, centrists — will have a say. The trick will be to see that they indeed vote.
For now, internal Democratic recriminations are but the stuff of self-destruction. Let it suffice that the Dems simply failed to game this out. They seemed to have forgotten that they're the minority party in both chambers, and therefore were essentially powerless — they didn't "have any real juice." The progressive base won't buy that, but that's to be expected. They also believed that Obama could somehow close Gitmo on his own and ram a public option through a vastly disapproving Senate. In ActivistWorld, it'll be just another day of self-righteous anguish.