Obama takes to the bully pulpit

This is the president we've been waiting for since 2008. At his presser today, President Obama called out the crazy cons in the Crackpot Caucus. No more catering or cratering to the vandals in the GOP House of Dysfunction. John Boehner is going to have to deal with his own damn crazies or take the blame.

Read the transcript or watch the vid at the link. It was mostly a thing of beauty. The only weak point was when Obama indicated a willingness to accept a short term agreement. To which I say -- no mas. This time it's got to be all or nothing. There's no other way to shut down the Tea Party tantrums. Agreeing to anything will only encourage them to try it again. In fact, as Charlie Pierce wisely counseled yesterday, Dems should up the ante:

For all the talk about how Republican extremism is finally catching up with the party, one can argue just as well that Wall Street-friendly, deficit-hawk, DLC-onomics is finally catching up with the Democratic party. There is no reason in the world now for the Democrats not to trot out a wish-list as long and as detailed as the one the Republicans burped up last week. Every last cut in the sequester agreement should be debated in the Democratic Senate. Medicare For All should get another run around the track. Major stimulative infrastructure programs should be designed. Hell, they should dig up John Maynard Keynes and sit him in the well of the Senate. If the denizens of the monkeyhouse want to gimmick things up with "continuing resolutions" funding those parts of the government that a) poll well, and b) make them look as though they give a rat's ass about poor people -- Tea Party congressmen defending the WIC program? Pull the other one. -- then the Democrats, many of whom actually care about this stuff, should give them a double dose of it in return.

I wish they would. If the GOPers want to redefine "negotiation" as no compromises allowed, then I don't see a down side to making equally extreme counter demands for stuff that would actually benefit the people. Let the GOPers fight against that. What better way to finally draw the bright line between the two party's platforms?