This week in the saga

The week the winnings are counted. Wednesday he holds a press conference abroad and reports that what everyone wanted to talk about was the deal. Thursday the ledger arrives in capitals — oil flowing, markets roaring, jobs at records — and ends with two words in quotation marks. The same day the Senate rule that has blocked him all year is called the work of fools. Friday the other side is finished and gets no money, not ten cents. Sunday a prime minister falls in a foreign capital. And on Sunday night, at home, somebody takes a knife to the one thing he rebuilt with his own name on it.