GOP seeks weak Tea

Old guard GOPers looking to avoid the bloodbath of 2012 primary season have a plan to shut down Tea Party conservatives.

A Republican National Committee meeting to compress the 2016 primary schedule grew heated Thursday, as supporters of rule changes beat back repeated attempts by a handful of conservative activists to torpedo them.

The push to shorten the presidential nominating process and have an early summer convention is an effort to give the eventual nominee time to raise money, unite the GOP, and hopefully avoid excessive infighting in the party. Many Republicans believe the lengthy nominating process in 2012 hurt Mitt Romney's chances.

Virginia Committeeman Morton Blackwell and a half-dozen RNC members from state parties where the party's libertarian wing has wrested control fought hard against a series of changes to stretch the primary process out. Their fear is that a shorter primary season stymies the possibility a lightly funded movement conservative could win the nomination and unfairly benefits cash-flush, establishment candidates.

Well of course it will shut down Tea Party challenges to the establishment picks. That's obviously the point. Now the crackpot cons will find out just how little value they retain for the Republican Party. Good for the GOP, not so good for the Democrats. Our best hope on the left is that the Tea Party crackpots will be so pissed off at being shut out that they splinter off and start their own damn party. Not holding my breath. It's most likely their hatred of libruls will trump their pride and they'll fall in line when it's time to vote.

Update: Just in. The RNC passed the rule change in a landslide vote.

There's war of conservative aggression in the House

Thing about Tea Party cons, they will never back down. It's the prime rule of the crackpot credo. No compromise. No surrender. Never admit you're wrong. So now we're on day two of the BigCon Grifters versus John Boehner. Apparently John has found that mason jar with his balls in it that Charlie Pierce keeps talking about. Channeling his inner honey badger, Boehner don't care what the fuck they do anymore.

Admit I'm admiring him just a little today for finally standing up to them. Wondering how long it's going to last though. This from a charter member of the House Crackpot Caucus on the budget deal doesn't bode well for the Speaker.

The budget deal that emerged this week was crafted to win support of Democrats and Republicans alike, and that's simply a bridge too far for one tea party congressman.

“This bill is not designed to get our vote,” Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) said Wednesday at a meeting hosted by the Heritage Foundation. “This bill is designed to pass with bipartisan support in the House.”

Ye Gods. We can't have that. Our government might actually function as it was intended to by those rascally Founding Fathers. No true conservative can stand for that.

GOP infighting heats up the House

Looks like the one lesson old guard Republicans learned from 2012 is the Tea Party's crackpot conservatism is toxic for the Republican brand. Showing a rare flash of public irritation, it's cear John Boehner has had enough of those people. The crackpot cons were not amused:

Club For Growth issued a statement in response to Boehner's remarks, but didn't mention him by name, and instead lit into the budget agreement he and Ryan are vouching for.

"We stand with Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tom Coburn, Rand Paul, members of the Republican Study Committee and every other fiscal conservative who opposes the Ryan-Murray deal," Chris Chocola, the group's president. "After carefully reviewing the budget deal, on which we never commented until it was complete, we determined that it would increase the size of government. We support pro-growth proposals when they are considered by Congress. In our evaluation, this isn't one of those."

That would be the same Ted Cruz, Tea Party dreamboat and 2016 dreamer who proudly strutted out of the stadium.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Tuesday that the lawmaker walked out of Nelson Mandela's memorial service in Johannesburg when Cuban President Raul Castro spoke to the crowd, according to news reports.

Because nothing says presidential material like storming out of a state event because you don't like another world leader. But it's sure to play well with the rubes. Probably be able to fundraise a decent chunk of change off that tantrum.

Boehner is right. It's all about the grift. I'd take more pleasure in watching him reap his rewards for empowering these miscreants in the first place if we weren't all paying the price for his fall. [graphic via]

Nuke the filibuster already

I've long resisted the calls to kill the filibuster but I no longer have any doubt if the Republicans ever manage to bamboozle the electorate into giving them back a majority in the Senate, the very first thing they'll do is abolish it. So if Democrats could nuke the filibuster please. It's not that I don't appreciate this sort of chatter:

From young newbies to the old guards, Democratic senators are clamoring for filibuster reform, and insist that a mass Republican blockade of three judges to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals may be the final straw before going nuclear.

"It would mean they've totally gone back on what they said when there was a Republican president," Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the longest-serving member of the chamber, told TPM. "It would be such a reversal that I think there'd be overwhelming pressure to change the rules."

It's just that Democrats have been making the threat for so long it's no longer credible. The GOPers mock it. Shrug it off. As John Mccain said, "Someday Republicans will be in the majority, and if they set this precedent, they may not like the result. What goes around comes around in this town."

Republicans won't need any precedent to ramrod through their corporatist agenda. They've proven many times over, they have no honor. They have no scruples. They're unencumbered by ethics. Republicans will kill the filibuster out of the gate so Democrats can't use their own dirty dealing, obstruction tactics against them.

Democrats have to do it now while there's still time to accomplish something of value. And nothing is more valuable than striking a balance on the D.C. Circuit court. If you missed it last week, Brian Beutler already explained why the GOP are blocking judicial nominations

First, let me stipulate that I believe the Senate rules give the minority way too much power, not just over nominations, but over legislation as well. I think Democrats made an error in 2005 by “capitulating,” instead of allowing Republicans to go nuclear over President Bush’s judicial nominees. And whatever dilatory mechanisms senators want to erect to prevent the Senate from becoming too much like the House, the supermajority cloture era is anti-democratic and unsustainable in a polarized system like ours. [...]

But the trick Senate Republicans are playing this year — the power they’re exerting over both the executive and the judiciary — is new, and disjoined from the question of whether individual nominees deserve to serve in either branch of government. They’re denying (or threatening to deny) confirmation to any nominees in order to nullify laws, stymie legitimate policymaking, and “reverse court pack” — keep liberal judges off of one key appellate court in order to preserve its conservative balance for as long as possible.

That court is poised to destroy decades worth of hard fought for socially responsible progress. By intent and tradition, for the last 200+ years empty seats on the benches have been filled by the winners of the election so as to reflect the will of the people. As was passing legislation without requiring a super majority for every single bill. Republicans have overturned all of that outside the electoral process. The crackpot conservatives have transformed the Senate Gentlemen's Club into a frat house. That precedent certainly can't stand. So stop them. At this point, Democrats have nothing to lose by nuking the filibuster first, except excuses for inaction.

One dares to call them liars

News you won't see from the Clickbait Corps. BigMedia fears to tread where Brian Beutler dares to go with “Rate shock”: The GOP’s shameful new Obamacare lie. This in particular.

Some people who receive these notices will be pleasantly surprised to find that the most similar new plan offered by their current provider is actually cheaper than their old one. Others will be told that a similar plan will cost more. What they won’t be told, because insurers don’t want to downsell or advertise for their competitors, is that they’re likely to find a different plan available through their state exchange that’s closer to the same price or cheaper. If they can’t find a cheaper one, then there’s a decent chance that federal subsidies will reduce their out-of-pocket costs. It’s only the remainder — and it’s likely to be a small remainder — that genuinely will have no choice but to either pay more money (in some cases significantly more) or pay a fine and go without coverage.

The cancellations are for policies so crappy they don't conform to the bare requirements of meaningful health care coverage as mandated by Obamacare. So people complaining about not being able to "keep their plan" are basically whining they have to pay more to stay with a company that's been ripping them off instead of choosing from the other (far superior) 124 plans available on the exchanges. [Supply your own punchline.]

Crazy cons

Looking around the internets I see the Crackpot Caucus is pretty much in --"well doubling down on the crazy didn't work, so triple down will do the trick" -- mode. Meanwhile, the rest of the old guard GOPers are freaking out about the damage to the brand. Even worse, (for the rest of us), the fiscal grifters have swooped in.

Charlie Pierce is already on the Fix the Debt vultures beat. No point in rewriting this:

This is the real threat to the recovery right here. Not partisan bickering. Not the temporizing in the deal cut last night. Not even Ted Cruz and the members of the monkeyhouse on the other side of the Capitol. It is this permanent class of deficit fetishists and austerian fantasts. These are the people who will wreck lives. These are people who get heard in the White House instead of being told to go pound sand until we elect Paul Ryan to be president. Every time the president mentons the deficit, these guys get their semi-annual woodies and a little bit of actual progressive politics dies again. These are the people whose credentials really should have been revoked last night, if there actually was the kind of Democratic triumph that we're being sold today. Pete Peterson must have bought Purina short. I am so dreading that conference committee.

On the bright side Mitch McConnell's payoff was what the true believers are calling a "Kentucky earmark", meaning $2.9 billion in federal funding for a dam project. Which I heartily approve of, because -- stimulus. Kentucky's economy really needs it.

GOP in disarray

Went offline for a few hours. Nothing much changed except the GOP's Crackpot Caucus doubled down on the crackpottery. Boehner's House of Dysfunction reportedly adjourned without taking a vote on anything. Hearing speculation they will vote on the Senate bill tomorrow but who knows? I suppose it depends on how well fortified with liquid courage poor ole Johnny is when he arrives on the Hill.

Meanwhile, the fearsome Huckleberry Closet Case** scolds the mean Democrats:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told TPM that he was "proud" of Speaker John Boehner's handling of the fiscal crisis but thought Democrats should have been more flexible with Republicans.

Said Graham: "We won't be the last political party to overplay our hand. It might happen one day on the Democratic side. And if it did, would Republicans, for the good of the country, kinda give a little? We really did go too far. We screwed up. But their response is making things worse, not better."

Kinda give a little? What's the equivalent of 47 votes to repeal Obamacare?

[**yes, Charlie Pierce coined that nym]

House GOP revolting

And I mean revolting in every sense of the word. I would write about the latest "negotiations" (a/k/a hostage demands) but judging from the contradictory narratives in the media, nobody knows what Boehner's House of Dysfunction is doing, including Boehner and his Crackpot Cons.

The maniacal vandals of the Crackpot Caucus are so immersed in their own invented reality, they apparently have no clue that the explosives they're tossing about on Capitol Hill have lit fuses and are about to incinerate the entire world economy. Yet, even though reality based Americans can see the danger, and we will all suffer the consequences, I don't see any remedy for this insanity but to let the crackpots blow the place up. They won't be jolted out of their fantasy world until they're up to their knobby knees in the rubble and even their own deluded base is headed up the hill with torches and pitchforks. Which I have to believe will finally happen when the damage is so overwhelming that even they can't pretend it doesn't exist.

As bad as the damage will be, the alternative -- institutionalizing governance by hostage taking forever -- would be worse. I only hope Obama and the Dems stay strong and refuse to cave at the last minute to spare us the mayhem. Better to suffer now for a better future than suffer for the foreseeable future under the threats and thuggery of reckless Republican crackpots.

Freudian slip

Hilarious. Destined to be typo of the year.

My favorite shutdown typo today: pic.twitter.com/Xs78POBYM4
— Ian Gordon (@id_gordon) October 15, 2013

GOPers sole owners of shutdown fiasco

I've been holding this post for days so it wouldn't get lost in the holiday weekend slump. Gratefully, it's finally picking up some steam. As this video of debate on the shutdown from the House floor makes clear, the shutdown (and now the pending debt default) was, and is, solely a construct of House Republicans.

The video sparked enough clicks over the weekend to finally give the story some legs with BigMedia. Jake Tapper is the first BigTV coverage I've seen with this blog report on his The Lead blog:

That said, van Hollen continues, “On October 1st, the R's passed a Rule to change the Standing Rules of the House so only Cantor or his designee could bring up Senate bill for a vote. I am told that we never played with this Rule when we were last in Majority and we are looking into the earlier history of this matter. In other words, they shut down the government and then changed the House Rules to keep it shut down.”

I suggested he should make this lead segment on the actual teevee program because, the people need to know. No reponse but maybe he'll take it that far. One lives in hope. Meanwhile, here's the original post I wrote:

GOP rejects Tea Party Caucus

Establishment GOP finally reached the point where the Tea Party's brew is just too toxic to swallow anymore. Party stalwarts are rushing to denounce their former compadres in "fiscal responsibility" as crackpots who don't understand how government works. Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Corker and Rep. Peter King assure us the "moderate Republicans" are going to pass a clean CR by the end of next this week. King, who has his eye on a 2016 run for President, went big on promising an end to the Tea Party hostage strategy:

A potential spending resolution without changes in government policy will “pass overwhelmingly,” King said. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, “has the leverage he needs, and I think it’s going to come to the House floor, no matter what.”

If Boehner doesn’t bring a measure to the floor, King said, he would support a discharge petition, in which a majority of the House can force the chamber to vote on a bill. Eighteen Republicans would have to join all 200 Democrats to compel the House to vote on opening the government, partially shuttered since Oct. 1, without conditions.

Maybe he should check with leadership before he makes that promise. In what should have been the biggest news in BigMedia this week (and instead was barely mentioned) House GOPers guaranteed the shutdown by changing the rules. You have to read the link to get how convoluted this ploy was but here's the gist:

Under normal House rules, according to House Democrats, once that bill had been rejected again by the Senate, then any member of the House could have made a motion to vote on the Senate's bill. Such a motion would have been what is called "privileged" and entitled to a vote of the full House. At that point, Democrats say, they could have joined with moderate Republicans in approving the motion and then in passing the clean Senate bill, averting a shutdown.

However, that's normal procedure and there's nothing normal about Boehner's House of Dysfunction. When the Democrats tried to evoke the discharge petition to avoid the shutdown, this happened:

But the House Rules Committee voted the night of Sept. 30 to change that rule for this specific bill. They added language dictating that any motion "may be offered only by the majority Leader or his designee."

So unless House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) wanted the Senate spending bill to come to the floor, it wasn't going to happen. And it didn't.

This should have been on the front page of every newspaper and the lead story in every broadcast. But "many Republicans say" it's Obama's fault -- so -- BigMedia will just as soon leave it there. Because, to paraphrase John Harris of Politico, there's no market for boring facts. The big money is in gossip, speculation and manufactured outrage.

Which is why our government is in such a mess in the first place. The people can't hold their elected representatives responsible unless they know what exactly they're doing. That used to be the media's job. Until it wasn't.

You say you want a negotiation

Well, this is encouraging. It appears our Democrats learned how to negotiate. Helluva a counter offer to the GOP's inane demands:

Washington Post: "Rather than making concessions that would undermine Obama's signature health-care initiative, as Republicans first demanded, Democrats are now on the offensive and seeking to undo what has become a cherished prize for the GOP: deep agency spending cuts known as the sequester."

Much more at Taegan's link.

No deal

I hope this is true. The Hill is reporting Obama rejected the GOP's lame offer:

President Obama signaled Saturday that he wouldn't accept the Republicans' offer for a short-term increase in the nation's debt limit.

"Manufacturing crises to extract massive concessions isn’t how our democracy works, and we have to stop it," Obama said. "Politics is a battle of ideas, but you advance those ideas through elections and legislation – not extortion."

Hell, I could have written that statement myself. Meanwhile, the twitter tells me House GOPers are scrambling to pass the buck to the Senate so they can blame them for the failure of the Tea Party tantrums to produce any sweets for the angry base. [image via]

Tell me what's going on

Another crazy day out in the real world so just catching up. I see the everything is still all fucked up and bullshit. Also, too. Willing to bet this is the quote of the day:

I feel much better now. “@ByronYork: GOP congressman: 'Most have us have no idea what is going on or what to expect at this point.'”
— Kai Ryssdal (@kairyssdal) October 11, 2013

Our country is being run by wayward frat boys, vandals and other assorted miscreant Republican crackpots. Or I should say, being run into the ground. If only we had some sort of organized system of news delivery to report that...


[Big thanks to Batocchio, (who you should be reading every day at his own blog), for kindly linking in at Mike's Blog Round-up.]

GOP brand in the dumper

You all know how I feel about polls but this new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll is so stunning it has even the tragically jaded journos dragging their jaws across the floor.

By a 22-point margin (53 percent to 31 percent), the public blames the Republican Party more for the shutdown than President Barack Obama – a wider margin of blame for the GOP than the party received during the poll during the last shutdown in 1995-96.

Just 24 percent of respondents have a favorable opinion about the GOP, and only 21 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party, which are both at all-time lows in the history of poll.

...a whopping 70 percent say congressional Republicans are putting politics first.

Once again, thanks Crackpot Caucus. This couldn't happen without you.

GOP seeing the worst numbers in the history of our politics. Dems would be crazy to bail them out. No way should they accept a paltry six week extension. Republicans claim they want to negotiate, then by definition Dems should counter with a demand for at least 24 weeks. With the people tired of the shutdown already, let the GOPers argue against ending it. Not that I'm holding my breath for that.

Stating the obvious

Is there really anyone who didn't know this? Anonymous senior GOP source admits they need Democratic help to escape their own snares in the shutdown insanity. Not at all clear they understand yet how little leverage they have but this is a start.

This source believes that at the end of the day, enough people in the GOP caucus could be OK with this because the economic implication of breaching the debt limit "scares people." This source also acknowledged that under this scenario, House GOP leaders may have to agree to pass a debt ceiling bill without all Republicans on board, and with Democratic support.

Meanwhile, Dana dutifully transcribes their phony talking point.

But multiple GOP sources tell CNN it is hard to nail down a path forward because there are still no direct conversations going on, and the White House will not talk.

What Dana fails to mention, (and how hard would it be to add this one sentence of context), the White House is reaching out to the GOP.

The White House had invited the full Republican caucus to participate in a meeting with the president, but the Speaker opted to send a smaller delegation, including leadership members and committee chairmen, a Boehner aide said earlier Wednesday.

So either these Republicans are too stupid to realize they were all invited to air their grievances directly to the President or they're deliberately lying. Either way they're not fit to hold their office.

In which I thank the Crackpot Caucus

Brian Beutler lays out the stakes and the end game of the shutdown/debt limit insanity today and I realized we actually owe the Crackpot Caucus a huge thank you. They're doing what ten years of solid lefty internet activism and advocacy couldn't do. They're poised to destroy the GOP brand for generations to come. Or least expose its true motives behind the weasel worded rhetoric.

Of course, they still could come to their senses and avert the disaster but for the moment it doesn't look likely. To which I can only say, "Please proceed crackpots." And thanks for the help.

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?

Republicans own this shutdown

Crackpot cons in John Boehner's House of Dysfunction (and their paid and volunteer apologists) are desperately trying to shift the blame for the govenment shutdown onto the Democrats but anyone who plays the "both sides do it" storyline on this one is either a liar or a fool. The irresponsible party here couldn't be more clear:

The federal government shut down for one reason: House Republicans did not pass a six-week funding bill.

That doesn’t mean a majority of the House opposed the bill, however. In fact, the House never got to vote on it. Speaker John Boehner refused to hold a vote on funding alone–a “clean” bill–instead only allowing votes on funding plans that undermined Obamacare. The Senate rejected those bills, and Boehner never brought a clean bill to the floor before the deadline for funding the government. If Boehner had simply held a vote on funding alone, 200 House Democrats would back him and he’d only need 17 Republicans to prevail. The votes are there, according to several Republican members who spoke out this weekend.

By standing in the way of majority rule, Boehner took an entirely avoidable shutdown and made it inevitable.

Boehner could end this in a hot minute if only he could find his balls and stand up to the Tea Party vandals in his own party. It's as simple as that. [photo via]

Communication breakdown, drives them insane

I'm on a long overdue visit with my mom so outsourcing the daylight posting. Must reads of the moment:

Brilliant post on the wingnut bloggers reaction to the impending government shutdown and possibly the best hed in the history of the internets by Edroso at his big media gig on the Village Voice.

Clearest review of this current crackpot con brain meltdown and analysis of why the GOP would be taking this apparently suicidal stand that I've seen yet by Peter Weber at The Week. Peter is one of the few mainstream journalists I've seen mention all the GOP hostage demands, in particular the GOP obsession with regulating vaginas. Of course, I have been offline for days so he's probably not the only one to notice Republicans' fear of lady parts but as far as I can see it was mostly ignored by Big Media. Which is, you know, journalistic malpractice.

Senate GOPers revolt

Harry Reid could have couched this better (or possibly The Hill truncated his statement). He should have made the point the impending government shutdown being engineered by the Crackpot Caucus in John Boehner's House of Dysfunction is on them even as they desperately try to spin their harebrained plots to pin the blame on Obama. However, it's probably a good sign that Senate Republicans mutinied, leaping off the crackpots' ship of fools in droves.

Reid thanked Senate Republicans and Democrats for voting to end debate on the bill today. Twenty-five Republicans joined every Senate Democrat in voting to end debate, even though Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned that vote would let Democrats strip language from the bill to defund ObamaCare.

Someone should explain the difference between propaganda to fool the rubes and the actual facts to Cruz. Those facts being legitimate polling shows a majority of Americans don't want them to defund or destroy Obamacare. Of course Cruz is actually smart enough to know that. Everybody inside the beltway knows the only reason he's putting on this clown act is it will help him with the deluded base in the 2016 primaries.