Playbook: “Democrats are under intense pressure from their base to oppose Trump, his policies and nominees — a Politico/Morning Consult poll showed this week that more than half of Democrats want Democratic lawmakers to stand up against Republicans. Only time will tell if that calculation proves politically fruitful. But if Democrats continue to delay nominations, they will also slow the GOP agenda.”

“Republicans will have to keep government funding by April 28, lift the debt ceiling by the spring or summer and pass a supplemental spending bill that will include billions for the Pentagon and Trump’s border wall. Those three items could be incredibly time consuming. On the House side, there will be delays as well. House Republicans will be especially eager to load up spending bills with policy provisions advancing their agenda — they tried, but mostly failed, to do that during the Obama presidency. Put quite simply, don’t get your hopes up. The prospects for quick action on Obamacare, tax reform and infrastructure look bleak.”

“Virtually all Democratic senators are expected to vote against President Trump’s picks to lead the departments of Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury and his top budget nominee — a historic rebuke of a first-term president’s top Cabinet nominees,” the Washington Post reports.

“Near-unanimous opposition to a first-term president’s Cabinet picks is rare and hasn’t happened in recent history. But it comes amid a growing furor among progressive groups calling on Democratic lawmakers to oppose all of Trump’s nominees and policies. A CNN poll released on Sunday showed that just 59% of Democrats approve of their party’s leaders, a sign that diehard partisans want lawmakers to serve as a more aggressive check on Trump.”

Politico: “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Total GOP control of Washington should mean that Trump gets everything he wants out of Capitol Hill.”

“But Senate Democrats — the last line of Democratic defense — are slow-walking the installation of Trump’s Cabinet to a historic degree, so much so that Republicans haven’t even started yet on Trump’s legislative agenda. Republicans will eventually win all these confirmation battles, but it will be time-consuming and ugly.”

James Hohmann: “This is an incredibly delicate moment in the Capitol. Republicans who are wise, including Mitch McConnell, do not want to invoke the nuclear option. Smart conservatives understand that changing the rules of the Senate to allow for a simple majority to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee would set a disastrous precedent, which would invariably be used to put hyper-liberal justices onto the high court in future years. Even talking about going this route poisons the well and makes it that much harder to woo the eight moderate Democrats needed to clear the current 60-vote threshold.”