Let Boehner Twist in the Wind

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/4/8/95020/13021

Let Boehner Twist in the Wind

by BooMan
Fri Apr 8th, 2011 at 09:50:20 AM EST

snip//

Personally, I think the Republicans have done a poor job of positioning themselves. The amount of money they're fighting for is too small to justify closing the government, and the people won't understand why they closed the government over funding for women's reproductive health or regulations that give us clean air and water, and help address climate change. Under these circumstances, I don't see any reason not to call Boehner's bluff and force him to openly capitulate or shut down the government.

The possible downside for the Democrats is that the shutdown will be blamed on the government generally, without any differentiation between parties or much weighting of blame on either side. The delegitimization of government is one of the Republicans' long-term projects, and the more dysfunctional it is, the easier their task is in convincing people that it can't do anything right. That's a risk the Democrats have to take, though, because the Republicans do have sufficient power to force bad choices upon us.

I think it's clear that Boehner doesn't think his party will benefit from a shutdown at this time and would prefer to avert one so he can threaten another shutdown later in the year. But he needs a fig-leaf. We should not provide a fig-leaf. Leave him naked and defeated and defending an indefensible shutdown. Our position is strong. There is no reason to offer Boehner a life-line right now.

[JitterbugPerfume]

1. K&R

when what they are trying to do finally sinks in the public will be ready to tar and feather those tea party clowns.

[atreides1]

2. Nice thought

But you give the public more credit then it deserves...

[Lynx]

3. No trash pickup?

I'm mad enough about this but if I lived in DC, and forced to face mountains of uncollected trash, I'd be ripping off Boner's orange skin just about now.

[littlewolf]

4. The biggest problem with a shut down is this ....

in 2010 the Democratic Party controlled both houses of congress and the WH ...
they would not pass a budget ... instead kicking that can down the road ....
Now in the minority ... they are not in a position of strength ... and it will always
come back to the Dem's .... that this is THEIR budget ... the one they would not
pass .... that is the danger .... in Clinton vs Gingrich ... it was the GOP congress's budget
and the Democratic WH .... different this time ....

[jwirr]

5. In a nutshell. They controlled the government if they had stuck together

but in almost all things they could not even decide what they wanted to do. I blame the blue dogs mostly. We had the ball on many issues and we dropped it. If we do not take the House back and keep the Senate we will have lost the chance to do anything.

We are at one of those moments in our nation when we need to realize once again "we either hang together or we hang separately".