J-Rube says that “the grown-ups are taking the Senate back,” from Sens. Cruz, Lee and Paul. This is true only in the sense that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is promising not to filibuster the House’s continuing resolution, which means that Harry Reid will be able to pass whatever he wants to pass and throw the hot potato back in John Boehner’s lap. But, as Matt Yglesias points out, this is hardly the end of this crisis. Our country’s credit rating is at increasing risk with every day that goes by without clarity about whether or not the debt ceiling will be raised. And, even if the Republicans ultimately cave on both the CR and the debt ceiling, the government will still only be funded until mid-December and a new debt ceiling crisis will loom on the horizon. The impasse will continue and the idiotic sequester will remain in place.
The good news is that I have never before seen a party lead with their chin quite as much as the Republican Party is doing right now. I believe that their ship is caught up on the shoals, and a few rounds of pounding waves should be enough to break the whole vessel into pieces.
Begin by having the Senate pass a clean continuing resolution. Watch the Republicans vote to let it happen but vote against the bill itself. This will fool no one and alienate the GOP’s big business donors.
Then have Pelosi withhold her support from the clean CR bill, forcing Boehner to come to her and ask what she needs to support the bill. Pelosi should then demand an end to the statutory debt ceiling. She should also have a package ready that would adjust the funding in the sequester to be more to our liking, although she should be willing to give some goodies to moderate pro-defense Republicans who she will need to make the coup work. She might even demand a bill that funds the government for longer than three months, but I don’t think she can ask for everything, and we don’t really like the spending levels anyway, so why perpetuate them longer than we need to?
This one-two Senate-House punch should be enough to break the hold of the Tea Party on John Boehner and the rest of the Republican caucus. Either Boehner will resign or he will accept Pelosi’s offer. If he accepts Pelosi’s offer, there will be an effort to take his gavel away.
The Democrats can agree to vote for Boehner for speaker to prevent a right-wing coup, but then Boehner will be beholden to the people who actually voted for him.
That’s the coup we want.
Boehner has shown himself to be too passive to save himself this way. My (admittedly pretty ignorant) forlorn-hope idea is that there should be a coup from the pork party: that is that Pelosi should get an old-school pig Republican like Hal Rogers to run for Speaker against the Tea Party and the so-called Hastert Rule. I’m sure there are technical reasons why this can’t happen but would you explain them to me, Boo?
The good news is that I have never before seen a party lead with their chin quite as much as the Republican Party is doing right now.
But .. but .. but Charlie Cook says that the GOP is poised to kick ass in ’14!!
Just like in ’64!
Cook may be right.
Watch the Republicans vote to let it happen but vote against the bill itself. This will fool no one and alienate the GOP’s big business donors.
Have they really stopped giving money to the GOP? I doubt it.
Yeah, a lot of Romney donors have cut off the spigots.
Really? If they’re still sitting out this time next year, I’ll start to celebrate. Besides, they still have morons like Chuck Todd carrying their water.
Yes.
I was specifically talking about Congress, though it’s good to see The Cooch has finally made some GOP donors squirm.
I don’t see why the scenario you describe would be a bad option for Boner at all. He would be able to save his own speakership, and to repeat the maneuver whenever necessary. Yet on more liberal initiatives that he and the Tea Party would both oppose, he could side with them. So he wouldn’t be Pelosi’s lap dog. The Tea Party wouldn’t like him, but they could not get rid of him.
To be more realistic about this, I would see it primarily as a victory for the establishment wing of the Republican Party; but it also would be a vindication for their would-be faithful servant John Boner.
I have always disliked the Tan Man, not only for his general political stance but because he’s a bully and a brazen liar (as I realized right at the beginning of the Obama administration). Nevertheless, in this situation he might be able to serve as a check on the outright anarchy and destructiveness of the TP.
Boner is at least a guy the president can play golf with, and with whom deals can be made. The latter is a possible sign of danger if the president till seeks “the grand bargain”. But the key person here is not Obama, but Pelosi. House Democrats would be able to negotiate with Boner from a position of real strength.
The problem with this is that it still depends upon at least 20 Republicans crossing over to support whatever Pelosi comes up with, and thus guaranteeing primary challenges from the Tea-party. It’ll never happen.
I think it will.
Boehner has a lot more support than you might realize.
Does he really? Or is it that Cantor doesn’t want the job right now because he doesn’t want to be the one to have to cut deals with Obama? Cantor has the # 2 job in the House now yet doesn’t catch many arrows, if at all, for it. The Tan Man catches them all.
You have to think where the pressure is coming from. The GOP establishment has a chance here to get a little control back over its own party. There must be more than 20 house republicans that will listen to the Chamber of Commerce. Boner knows who they are.
Remember, Boner doesn’t have to do this every time, just when “necessary”.
And also remember, he’s already done it a few times.
If you’re right about Cantor, and I think you are, that counts as support. Cantor doesn’t support people because he’s in love with them but because he thinks it’s good for Cantor.
Right, and right now he wants The Tan Man catching all the arrows. So that means “support” for Boner is high only because Cantor doesn’t want a coup.
to give legislative power to Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats? No way.
No way
Are there twenty Republicans in the Northeast? People there seems much less likely to be movement conservatives (“Obama is the Devil”) than financial conservatives (“Go starve, I don’t want to pay taxes”). The financial conservatives don’t want the markets or business conditions rocked.
They are not about to give Nancy Pelosi any legislative leadership in the manner of a coup. There are tea-party groups in the north-east after all.
There was only one GOPer who voted against Boner’s stupid stunt of a bill last week. Ringell of VA.
I agree with this plan 100%. Maybe you want to re-think it.
I’m not sure I agree. Right now, the Repukes are leading in the generic “R v D” poll. If this is so, how are they losing? I am concerned that we are getting caught up in “D-centric” notions, while the Rs are winning the right-of-center Is (and yes I know that there are no Is). If we win the battle, and lose next Nov decisively, we may not want this.
What is my point, you are probably thinking? My point is that the long game may be going the R way.
When government doesn’t work and one party is destructive and the other is full of abject cowards it’s not surprising that rejecting government takes off when it’s backed by an ocean of money.
It is regularly embarrassing to be a democrat.
Can we get clear on this. In 2011 we found out that “our country’s credit rating” is a bullshit number. The same rating agencies that cleared so many credit default swaps did not know how to handle the GOP nonsense. The importance of Moody’s and the others’ rating dropped completely as far as bond buyers were concerned.
US payment experience is more important now than the credit ratings. And the US has never missed a payment on any bondholder. And likely won’t now.
Moreover, the GOP knows this. They are flailing at this point, hoping for some of their actions to hit a weak spot.
Having painted his caucus into a corner over five years with his total obstruction strategy, McConnell at the moment has the smarts to wait for the paint to dry and hope folks forget by next November.
Mixed Metaphor Alert!
(Unless ships have chins. Which I’d pay to see. Limbaugh comes to mind, but a ship would only have one chin…)
A ship does have a chin… on its figurehead. But then the GOP ship’s figurehead (and actual head) is Limbaugh, so you’re right: The GOP is leading with its chins.