january?

1:30 central: Ted Cruz rolls over

Also Rush Limbaugh. Soo much for Reagan's Eleventh Commandment.

Jonathan Chait, who's political ops I generally respect, wrote another excellent piece on GOP strategy, or lack thereof:

Stop Fretting: The Debt Ceiling Crisis is Over
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/10/stop-fretting-the -debt-ceiling-crisis-is-over.html

I wonder how they're planning to get two-thirds of the Senate to vote for Obama's removal. I grant you the Republicans haven't been at all rational about any of the current mess, but it would require Orly Taitz-grade delusion to imagine over a dozen Democrats siding with the Republicans to impeach.

Guess what you don't need while considering a bill of impeachment? Anykind of legislative agenda or response to someone elshe's agenda other than "we should wait to see whether the president will be removed from office"

Plus, the rubes love it. House members have been promising constituents that they'll impeach him just as soon as they can figure out how for months.

Palin suggested that refusing to increase the debt ceiling would ensure Obama's removal, as not paying the debt would be an impeachable offense, and also paying the debt without statutory authority would be animoeachable offense

Let them try. Clinton's popularity increased after Gingrich & Co. tried to impeach Slick Willie.

Right now, I just wonder who'll take over for Boehner.

No impeachment. They are going to fragment into various camps each trying desperately to concoct as many scandals as possible, from IRS targeting the Tea Party to the President ordering war memorials closed illegally to punish veterans and make political points. This they will do, tails under their legs, solely for keeping the heat under their base burning and the donations coming in.

It's been a total disaster. Without looking at the stats, I'm willing to bet that they have very little consensus for what to do in the 24 battleground districts that will see millions of dollars of campaigning next election. In some polls the GOP holds 10 points of blame over the Democrats in these districts, and all the Dems would have to do is win 17 of those. Will the DCCC be dropping bombs all over these swing districts? You bet. Will I be donating to the DCCC campaign warchest again next year? Yup!

I would love to believe this bites them in the ass.

But then I remember we elected W twice and how the 2010 elections went. And then I remember we're a year out from elections, and how stupid most of the electorate is.

Impeachment? Nah. This was a crudely manufactured and shoddily concieved Tea Party power play with Ted Cruz as the quarterback. It completely failed, and everyone knew it was going to. The waiting game was just to see how much the GOP could damage both itself and the country. My point is that, general disorganization aside, the GOP is way in the red on political capital to spend on bullshit.

A good yardstick is actually how pissed off Rush Limbaugh is at his own party right now. Make no mistake, the GOP is fucked, and it's fucked because of this. Time will tell how long it lasts.

" the GOP is fucked, and it's fucked because of this. Time will tell how long it lasts."

I read Boehner say something very similar recently.

the problem is the people who elected these crackpots believe what they are being told. this isnt over :/

I hear you, but I am interested in the consequences of an utterly (even not openly) splintered and factionalized GOP. If they come up with, say, eight solid brands, lots of people on the Dem side are going to find a product there they like.

If you're a Dem, the thing to be feared is the GOP quisatz haderach: A moderate uniter with the common touch.

A "moderate uniter" isn't going to work until they get the Tea Party stank out of the GOP. Right now, they're the motivated base. They'll come out and defeat sitting Republicans in the primaries because they don't think life begins at an erection and if a poor person is seen to laugh at anything then they aren't really poor and need their benefits cut followed by imprisonment.

Asking the Republican Party to become in any way moderate will require the replacing of their drive to embrace hate and fear-fuelled politics. That's almost always been an undercurrent but really came of age starting with Newt Gingrich and the religious right.

They've pretty much gone as far as they can on making things better for those who already had it cushy without destroying the country or turning it into a corporate feudal state. They can't actually give the religious and racist wings that vote for them what they want without (further) shredding the constitution, and they're already seeing that gerrmandering even more just gets insane people that cause problems and are hard to unseat.

It's a pretty remote possibility, to be sure, for all of those reasons. But the Republicans are one really excellent image and messaging consultant away from having a much broader appeal. They're one reasonable candidate away from the White House.

But I've been continually surprised by the cluelessness and lack of direction on the Right, so maybe they've values votered themelves to death.

Deep down, on a psychological level, they've found exactly where they ENJOY being the most: the role of perpetual outsiders. It's the only thing that cheers them up. Nevermind that all of their heroes are Beltway insiders floating on a huge pile of sweet, sweet Citizens United money, it's the image of "outsider" that appeals, and, like virginity, it's very easy to lose the appearance of being an outsider and next to impossible to get it back. That's also the great hellish agony of it all, and it's wonderful.

Obama IS a Republican "moderate uniter" in all but name, he even said so in nearly as many words a couple weeks ago.

Old Zircon took my comment.

I'd say Obama's had to BE a moderate Republican because that's the most "liberal" he can be with this current congress and climate. I'd rather we have universal health coverage and other things that were proposed at the start of his term, but those were impossible with the rise of the Tea Party (for example, the closing of GITMO was kiboshed by Tea Partiers and other conservatives who did so on the grounds that we'd be bringing the worst of the worst into our country, as opposed to the rapists, murderers, and other convicted criminals we already have, I guess).

On the flip side, you COULD claim that Congress was moderately conservative based on what its actually PASSED. They're right-wing hardcore conservatives if you look at all the stuff they tried to send up the pipe and knew wouldn't even get past the Senate. That, by the way, is how things used to work with the GOP. The Republican running for office would promise to kick all of the immigrants out, ban abortion, etc. They'd just have to put forth one bill chock full of unconstitutional insanity which would get shot down before it even came to a vote. They could shrug and tell their voters "I tried" and things would progress on more traditional footings.

Now, the crazy just doesn't stop and the base won't let them quit at just one go.

Obama tried to cut a trillion dollars off the defense budget.
He tried to spend 0B more on infrastructural improvements.
He is largely responsible for new ultraspeed train networks going up in various parts of the country.
If that's a moderate Republican, I'm happy to have it.

When Obama tried to transfer the Gitmo prisoners, it wasn't just Republicans who opposed him. The Senate vote was 90-6 AGAINST, meaning about 50 Democrats sided with the Republicans. A hell of a lot of Democrats should be ashamed of themselves.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/30826649/

But on most issues, the Democrats are on the side of sanity and basic competence, so this one issue aside, I don't sweat the Democrats that much. Republicans are the biggest problem; we need to devote our full attention to reducing them to a cranky irritation.