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.