Republican adopt Carl Spackler, "It's no big deal!" meme to save their butts

[CoffeeCat]

Driving home this afternoon, I listened to several right-wing radio stations. I was surprised to hear a hyper-synchronized message on every single right-wing outlet:

Hey, it's no big deal that the government is shut down! This happens *all* of the time! Why, it happened dozens of times under Ronald Reagan!

It's no big deal! It's official America, the Republicans have stolen a line from Carl Spackler, the oafish, dunderheaded greenskeeper from Caddyshack.



"It's no big deal!" is what you are forced to say when the President of the United States makes a cogent argument for how reckless, selfish and insane your idea of shutting down the government is.

"It's no big deal!" is what you are forced to say when your party has been outed as shameful spoiled brats who are willing to take down your own country and the world economy--simply because you don't get your way.

"It's no big deal" is what you say when your pitiful actions make the President look like Superman--while your tea-party brigade looks like the characters from The Lord of the Flies.

It's no big deal!


Republicans can't defend their actions. They can't explain their behavior without tanking their approval ratings into the single digits. And they know this. So, they're pivoting out of this white-hot mess, and "It's no big deal" is their only way out of this muck.

"It's no big deal" is damage control.

Republicans have become a parody of themselves--a caricature of Carl Spackler. John Bohner is standing at the bottom of that empty swimming pool, sniffing that candy bar and telling the entire world, "Hey, it's no big deal." How embarrassing for the Speaker of the House.

It may take a few days to resolve, but it appears that Democrats have beat the Republicans, and as a bonus--the Republicans have imploded their own party, showcased their extremism on the world's stage and tanked their polls down to record lows.

That, IS a big deal. And the Democrats have that going for them...which is nice.

[pscot]

1. Unlike Carl, I don't think any of these yahoos

are going to achieve total consciousness here or on their deathbeds.

[spanone]

2. carl has more going for him than all those clowns combined.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Yep. They were GLEEFUL last week with the shutdown. Still insist that it's no big deal. But then

all of a sudden the "wrong" people get caught in their net (dead soldiers' families, national park service) along with the "right" people (WIC recipients, EPA, etc.), and they get really, really angry and blame Obama, the Park Service, the Pentagon for making the TeaKlown Congress "look bad" by not quietly (non-publicly) rescuing them from their self-created reality. They want the shutdown, but no blame for the actual ugly impact of the shutdown. It would be funny if so many weren't suffering.

[ZRT2209]

4. Cinderella story!