The Note: GOP charts path around Trump's wall and words

The TAKE with Rick Klein

President Donald Trump doesn't need divided government to divide his party.

His decree on Syria has Republicans again asking questions about White House decision-making, on both substance and process.

Back home, the good news for the holidays is that there's a path to not having the government shut down. The bad news for Republicans is that the cost of temporary spending peace is a schism in the party, and the near certainty that Trump's border wall won't be funded, no matter what happens with spending bills this week.

The president won't admit it, but Congress is now about as likely to pay for the wall as Mexico is. Moving a spending deadline into February means moving it into an era of Democratic control of the House, of course.

As for Syria, the condemnations from Senate Republicans stem in part from the knowledge that Trump is defying his own advisers and military leaders in ordering a withdrawal.

The president would like to go into the holidays with loose ends tied up. But fraying at the edges of his coalition will linger well into the new year.

The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks

A year of extreme partisanship is ending with days of party realignment, or, maybe even, a dissolving of some party lines altogether.

Since day one of his campaign and his administration, this Republican president has been all about a brand new Grand Old Party. This week felt like a coda to that point.

Long gone are the days of hawkish, Bush-era foreign policy. Trump's foreign policy shift has been quick and extreme, leaving some lawmakers in both parties off-balance. He declared victory over the Islamic State in Syria on Wednesday and then the Pentagon announced it had started the process of withdrawing U.S. troops. That prompted some of his fiercest defenders to blast the decision. Sen. Lindsey Graham called it "Obama-like," and on the Democratic side, there were lawmakers talking about the merits of a bigger military footprint abroad.

And then take criminal justice reform this week. The same president who has made a career out of off-handed remarks about locking up political opponents, ramping up responses to crime and creating a deportation force got behind a bill to reform prisons and retroactively lower sentences.

He was in the unique position to provide cover for otherwise much more traditionally conservative Republicans -- whatever that means -- to get on board, despite the shift from past statements required.

The TIP with Molly Nagle

Another win for former Vice President Joe Biden -- but it's also maybe a cautionary tale.

A Quinnipiac survey released Wednesday found 53 percent of voters have a favorable view of the former vice president, while 33 percent hold an unfavorable view. That puts Biden at the top of the Democratic heap of possible 2020 candidates -- and far ahead of Hillary Clinton. Only 32 percent of voters hold a positive view of the 2016 Democratic candidate for president, with 61 percent of voters holding an unfavorable opinion.

While Wednesday's poll, and others, show Biden as the man to beat, it could also show how Biden could lose. A Quinnipiac poll from November of 2014 showed Clinton in a similar position to where Biden is now, but those numbers dropped after she entered the race -- perhaps signaling the danger that Biden could face as the front runner, especially in a likely crowded field. There's nowhere to go but down in the standings.

However, Biden and Clinton are different candidates, and Biden still needs to decide if a 2020 run is in the cards. He's been clear that early numbers aren't entering into his equation.

"I don't think about the polling data," Biden said in an interview with "CBS This Morning." "I think about whether or not I should run based on very private decisions relating to my family and the loss of my son and what I want to do with the rest of my life. But I don't think of it in terms of can I win, can I -- will I -- lose. That's not part of the calculation."

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. Thursday morning's episode features ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz, who explores the president's plan to pull U.S. troops out of Syria. Then, ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Mary Bruce explains why many Republicans are angry about the move. She also tells us about the continuing resolution that will fund the government until Feb. 8. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

• House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on the "peril of an ignored national debt" at 10 a.m.
• House Veterans Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on the Veterans First Program at 10 a.m.
• House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security at 10:15 a.m.
• Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray will hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m.
• President Donald Trump will participate in a signing ceremony for the "Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018," known as the farm bill, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at 2:30 p.m.
• Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence will visit with USO families in Bethesda, Maryland, at 4:30 p.m.

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The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the key political moments of the day ahead. Please check back tomorrow for the latest.