GOP Failure Watch Part III

I do not think that "won" means what Bloomberg believes it to mean.

 

But the argument is interesting. The discussion in DC is no longer about budgets, taxes, economic stimulus, growth, etc. The main discussion is what expenses to cut and by how much.

 

Won what? Obviously, they'll be back for more in January. I don't recall which article I read it in yesterday, but some R Congressman was fairly candid in stating that he felt his party's leverage next year would be even weaker than than it was during this episode. One - in the end, ephemeral - advantage - the R's had going for them this time was Obama's history of caving to demands from the right. Why they thought he'd do it again with his signature piece of legislation, and with such clear statements from the WH and Dems about their unwillingness to negotiate, is anyone's guess. Still, he'd given in before, so one can at least imagine the true zealots believing that they could pull off the same trick yet again.

Well, they couldn't. Not even close. For all the talk about the R's being in total disarray right now, it's worth noting the unity among the Democrats. By January, we'll be that much closer to next year's election. I can't imagine Boehner allowing the house to go down this same disastrous route again. How many times can the party flirt with outright political suicide?

 

That's a great article. One quibble is that zombies seek brains, clearly something that falls way down the list of Tea Party desires, well after guns and fetuses and bibles.

Anyway, I wouldn't be rushing to the T-Note store. It's a matter of when, not if, the US defaults because of the Far Right. You saw it on the Tea Party Nation site yesterday; they think that since they can't control the levers of government because of stupid elections, their only leverage is the threat of shutdown.

 

Lots of people pretend to consider suicide for the attention, it's quite a good strategy if you're the one getting the attention and not noticing what it does to those giving it.
I think the right won the war of words and the press bent over backwards to spread their blame onto the other side (which should have had absolutely none) equally, "to be fair".
The right's base is spitting mad - the way they are most useful to their overlords. That madness is directed inward right this second, but can be molded to what works best for them against everyone else relatively soon, I'm sure.

It only looks really bad for them if you look at it logically - but there is nothing logical about them, it's pretty much all emotion. Strong emotions, like hate and fear and anger - not "weak" emotions like peace and love and empathy.

 

No different than Newt Gingrich being the family values candidate.

 

I always hear that conservatives are more knowledgeable about finance and economics.

How is it that most of them don't know the difference between a debt and debt ceiling? How is it that they feel raising the debt ceiling means taking on more debt?

This isn't even a nuanced concept, its basic Economics 101 for Dummies stuff. This convinces me they are not serious fiscal policy hawks, just economic populists.

 

Many conservative candidates say that they have a business background, so they are more capable of running the US economy.

Doesn't every large business run on debt? You take on debt to grow. If you don't have any debt on the books, you are not doing a good job running the business. The shareholders will put you out of a job at the next board meeting.

Now this doesn't apply if you are running a small enterprise, like a local family owned business. But the US economy is more similar to a large publicly traded corporation than a local hamburger joint. So running a local hamburger joint or lemonade stand or private medical clinic imparts no additional wisdom while running for president.

 

The article has more depth than the cover implies.

It's not that the TP won anything this round. Rather, that since 2010, a lot of the change in DC has been in the direction they say they want. They just don't seem to recognize that fact. Or perhaps they just want so much more than they've gotten or could possibly get, that it doesn't matter to them. As the article states, however, the TP's victory has been a Pyrrhic one which, taken literally, doesn't say much for the future of the movement.

 

Yo, Frankenstein, your monster went thataway:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/the-conservative-war-on-the-gop/280637/

Another good Republican Civil War article. The counterpoint to these arguments is that the Republican Party was able to deliver 44% of voters in New Jersey yesterday for a candidate who shouldn't have any business being on a ballot for local school board and running against a very popular and nationally-recognized (but black) Democrat. That tells me that just under half of voters will ALWAYS vote R.

 

I like this part of the article:

the grounds that the bonkers wing of the Republican party is going to have achieved exactly none of its own goals​

​

"Own goals" is a very apt turn of phrase, given this particlar message board. "Own goals" in the soccer sense being, ironically, pretty much all they achieved.

 

More confirmation that the zombies will attack again:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/will-the-gop-learn-its-failures

They aren’t angry with Speaker John Boehner for ultimately capitulating to Democratic demands. They’re frustrated with their more mainstream colleagues who put him in that position.

“I’m more upset with my Republican conference, to be honest with you. It’s been Republicans here who apparently always want to fight, but they want to fight the next fight, that have given Speaker Boehner the inability to be successful in this fight,” Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) told reporters Wednesday. “So if anybody should be kicked out, it’s probably those Republicans… who are unwilling to keep the promises they made to the American people. Those are the people who should be looking behind their back.

 

That was already the case, ever since August 2011 when Obama attempted to give away the farm, the homestead, and the children as part of the Great Fiscal Deal. (That said, one can argue it was the right thing for the Pres to do when playing the long game, as his conciliatory/moderate stance played well for the 2012 election.)

But that's Ted Cruz on the cover, not John Boehner, and I don't think Ted Cruz got anything done except future book sales.

 

They were at one time. But they've been in fantasy land ever since 1980, when they bought off on the Laffer Curve and supply-side economics.

 

A funny but true story from here in purple VA. My state senator (D), an octogenarian who is really more of a DINO, was up for re-election - supposedly for the final time - against a one of these young R financial geniuses. The Rep claimed he knew more about creating jobs. Turns out his amazing business consisted of power washing headstones at Arlington cemetery. The incumbent? As everyone already knew, he had founded and run a successful airline. Guess who won.

 

I'm not sure if NJ Senate results are a measure of anything... I was reading somewhere that Booker's margin of victory is the largest that a Senate race in NJ has had in ages. Another consideration is the low turnout, which tends to favor Republicans. Have that election on a regular election night, then the result might have been more heavily in Booker's favor.

 

Ah... A Paul Ryan wannabe..

 

And Iowa straw poll votes.

 

Yeah but both zombies and teabaggers only want to destroy other peoples' brains, not to actually use their own.

 

But you can fight back:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/276418/tea-party-zombies-must-die-daniel-foster

 

As I figured, though, there are stirrings in the business community that the extremist genie needs to be put back into its bottle:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/business-voices-frustration-gop-004200665.html

The Kochs and Scaifes can only do so much. They're small potatoes compared to the combined might of the rest of the corporate structure that isn't batshit crazy.

 

Is your avatar a Great Lakes bottle?

 

Peter King goes after Ted Cruz -

I don't think Ted will make it to a second Senatorial term. He's going to scorch the earth for 6 years, leave reviled by his colleagues and loved by his fans, and then sell 10 million books. He's also going to ******** with the GOP's national hopes.

 

The problem is that King is wrong. It's not just "one guy". It's the whole far-Right structure from the Kochs and Scaifes and their paid liars in the think tanks, academia and the media down to the ignorant-and-proud-of-it teabagger in the street. It's the entire House tea party caucus. It's the corporate elites who may not be drinking the tea-flavored Kool-Aid but still played with fire by bringing the crazies to DC in the first place to fight "Obamacare".