Sit With Me For A While By The Fire

Posted by BooMan | Oct 1, 2013 | 61 |

You know that comfortable feeling you get when you quietly stare into the campfire for a while?

That’s about how I feel as I watch the GOP glow, crackle and pop.

The best part is that I don’t even need to stoke the flames. They’re happy to throw new kindling and logs on the fire at regular intervals without even being asked.

Anyone have any marshmallows?

About The Author

BooMan

Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.

61 Comments

TarheelDem on October 1, 2013 at 3:58 pm

What Digby Said

I don’t see any glowing, crackling, and popping yet. Seems that the Mississippi folk who stormed the WWII monument had some help keeping the US Park Police at bay by the presence of Michele Bachmann and Steve King. Now that’s choots-paw.

And the Democrats rushed to offer up the medical device tax.

What the heck are you talking about? You are way ahead of events on this one.

There are maybe 8000 folks in Kentucky by now who know what their Obamacare rates are going to be. Figure 50% low-information voters. So maybe 4000 more who know that McConnell has been lying to them about Obamacare.

Do you have any on-the-ground information that shows a shift in public sentiment yet?
- BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 4:03 pm
  
  HA HA HA!!
  
  Oh, you are killing me.
  
  Maybe you should turn on Fox News or pay more attention to the bleats of pain from Republican lawmakers and their commentariat.
  
  You know when a submarine goes too deep and the rivets start firing off like bullets?
  
  Listen to that pinging sound. It’s getting deafening.
  - MNPundit on October 1, 2013 at 4:11 pm
    
    Then you tell her that to her face and see what she says.
    - BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 5:14 pm
      
      Who is she?
      - MNPundit on October 1, 2013 at 6:52 pm
        
        Digby. Have an email exchange of views with Digby and each post it on your various blogs.
      - centerfielddj on October 2, 2013 at 4:52 am
        
        I love Digby, and much of what she’s mentioning in her post is important information, but she’s not taking in the fact that a strategy to discredit the Tea Party and split the House GOP Caucus must be executed and completed. Otherwise, we’ll have to accept sequester levels of funding through 2016.
        
        The tactical retreat that Nancy’s caucus is executing on the sequester-level funding number will make it entirely clear to the non-wingnut public that the Republicans are completely to blame for any damage dome from the shutdown or (bigger) debt limit crisis. Once the GOP caucus is split, we can begin to work on restoring fuller funding for our priority programs.
TarheelDem on October 1, 2013 at 4:06 pm

Senate CR

This is going to make the rivets pop?
- BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 4:50 pm
  
  Why are you throwing budget numbers at me? Don’t you even have the slightest inkling of what you are watching?
  
  This is the end game. The end result of all their bullshit.
  
  You are fighting over a 90-day funding bill. We can’t have any budget at all until this fight is over and we have thrashed the Tea Party and forced the House to reorganize.
  
  We’re fighting for Obama’s second term here, not over one-fourth of $50 billion dollars.
  - BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 4:51 pm
    
    fuck it, you are fighting over a 45-day funding bill.
  - TarheelDem on October 1, 2013 at 5:08 pm
    
    Just remembering when at the last minute so Democrat or the White House trots out a “compromise” that kicks the can down the road. If this is the endgame, I’m ready to see the legislative hammer come down so that the Republicans are forced to radically betray their base. And I would like to see some structural changes in the way appropriations and debt are handled that make it harder to create a crisis.
    - BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 5:50 pm
      
      House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) told a handful of reporters Tuesday he supports House-Senate conference negotiations over a comprehensive budget resolution, which Republican leaders have blocked since April.
      
      “They should have done that long ago,” he said in response to a question from TPM, before walking into a closed-door GOP meeting to discuss the government shutdown strategy.
      
      Senate Democrats have formally requested budget talks 18 times since the two chambers passed differing budgets early this spring, but Republicans have blocked it each time. Would he like to see GOP leaders support bicameral budget talks?
      - shan on October 1, 2013 at 6:00 pm
        
        Unlike Sen. Paul this is a man who knows it has hit the fan….the smell has not reached the GOP. Did ya know the house did not extend the welfare bill that sends block grants to the states. Booman, is that a snap or a pop?
MNPundit on October 1, 2013 at 4:09 pm

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/witness-mississippi-congressman-opened-the-barricade-to-closed
-wwii-memorial

On the other hand, if you ignore the shutdown is it really happening?

Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS) “opened the barricade” and allowed a group of 91 veterans on Tuesday to storm into the closed World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., according to a representative from the group.

I’m going to wait for polling evidence that people in the actual districts are pissed at their reps.
- TarheelDem on October 1, 2013 at 4:19 pm
  
  If Occupy DC had organized it, folks would be being dragged away in zip-cuffs. Ain’t Congressional courtesy grand?
- on October 1, 2013 at 4:28 pm
  
  This works for elderly white people. Wait until a school bus full of kids on a class trip from Harlem tries to get into the Smithsonian.
- Tien Le on October 1, 2013 at 4:33 pm
  
  Love the imagery of a bunch of guys with walkers and canes ‘storming’ anything.
Indianadem on October 1, 2013 at 4:20 pm

Wingnuts roasting on an open fire…
southerndem on October 1, 2013 at 4:21 pm

Will definitely affect Va Gov. race
Check out this great ad
http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/10286/video-ken-cuccinellis-putting-ted-shutdown-cruz-ahead-of-va-f
amilies
southerndem on October 1, 2013 at 4:26 pm

Virginia R Scott Riggell has surrendered. Calls for clean CR.
On Fox News no less
Steve LaBonne on October 1, 2013 at 4:36 pm

Wingnuts roasting on an open fire
Pollsters telling you you’re hosed
’14 dirges being sung by a choir
Thug faces red as Boehner’s nose

Everybody knows a turkey and some
Elect one Speaker of the House
GOPer with his eyes on the polls
Will find it hard to sleep, the louse

And so, I’m offering this
Simple phrase to kids from
One to ninety-two
Altho’ it’s been said many times
Many ways
“Merry Shutdown- eff you”
- Ulysses S Grunt on October 1, 2013 at 5:14 pm
  
  Worth it for the first line alone. A fine rendition.
- ThisMagicalEarth on October 1, 2013 at 8:09 pm
  
  I loved your shut down classic! I tweeted a link to your comment on Twitter and also linked and listed the song at The Obama Diary. Thanks for the smile!
  
  http://theobamadiary.com/2013/10/01/chat-away-251/#comment-844000
BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 4:42 pm

Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) admitted to National Journal the budget showdown isn’t a winner for the Republican party and that Obamacare would be implemented despite GOP efforts.

Said Ross: “Ultimately that’s going to happen, in my opinion. We have voted 41 times to defund it or get rid of it. If my people back home say: Oh my gosh you voted to fund Obamacare, so be it. We’ve lost this battle. We need to move on to the next one.”

Said former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA): “When is a win not a win? When it belongs to the GOP. These are constant self-inflicted wounds. We don’t need to learn how to be a good loser. We need to learn to be a good winner.”
Similar to a Quinnipiac poll released earlier today, a new Public Policy Polling survey finds Democrats improving their position on the generic Congressional ballot in the wake of all the controversy about the government shutdown. Democrats now lead Republicans 45% to 40% up from a 43% to 42% spread in July.
Time: “Democrats saw political advantage in the shutdown, with the Democratic National Committee saying that Monday, the eve of the shutdown, was its best fundraising day since last November’s election.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Florida shows Charlie Crist (D) leading Gov. Rick Scott (R) in the race for governor, 50% to 38%.
Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday said he would support a short-term funding measure “to keep the government open while we negotiate.” — “I think what we could do is pass a very short term, maybe not six weeks, but what about one week, so we could negotiate…
Racing the clock hours before the midnight shutdown deadline, Rep. Charlie Dent, who co-chairs The Tuesday Group of self-described “center right” House Republicans, implored his peers not to let the government shut down.

“We’ve launched two strikes, neither were successful, and I suspect a third one would likely not be successful either,” Dent said he told his Republicans colleagues during a closed-door GOP conference meeting. “The hourglass is nearly empty and it’s time to get on with the business of funding the government and come back to fight another day.”

“It goes against the whole sprit of the Constitution,” Rep. Peter King says of the effort to undo Obamacare.

“It’s bad for the Congress. It’s bad for the government, bad for the country.”

For him, it was not a matter of politics, but of conscience. He could not facilitate what he had termed “government terrorism” on the part of the crazies.

“I can’t be party to this anymore,” he told the crowd in HC-5.

Sen. Jeff Flake said Tuesday that while he agrees with his Republican colleagues in the House that Obamacare is a problem, it’s the law and shouldn’t be debated with government funding.

“Well it is the law of the land, and I think there will be tremendous problems with it. … I hope that we can replace it with something better,” the Arizona Republican said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “But it is the law of the land, I think we have to remember that, and the notion that we were going to get the Democrats to delay it or repeal it on the CR, I think just wasn’t the right strategy.”

Rep. Scott Rigell, R-2nd, is now pushing for a vote on a continuing resolution that does not carry other stipulations after last night supporting a measure that would delay the implementation of the individual mandate under the health care law, among other things.

He tweeted this morning that “We fought the good fight. Time for a clean CR.”

“It’s very important that we understand that Americans don’t like government. They don’t like Congress. They don’t like government. But they don’t want it shut down,” Sen. John McCain told the host. “When, in ’95, when we shut down the government last time, we had already passed a number of appropriations bills. So the impact of a shutdown of a government since we haven’t passed a single appropriations bill, will be more immediate and will be more impactful.”
Charles Krauthammer has jokes for the conservatives who don’t like his criticism of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s defund Obamacare tactics.

The syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor, speaking Thursday night at the Media Research Center’s annual gala, made light of the attacks leveled against him this week for his skepticism of Cruz’s efforts as he also called on conservatives to “keep your spirits up as we careen our way to hell in a handbasket.”

“The circus created the past few days isn’t reflective of mainstream Republicans — it projects an image of not being reasonable. The vast majority of Republicans are pretty level-headed and are here to govern,” said Representative Michael Grimm, a New York Republican.

“This is a moment in history for our party to, once and for all, put everything on the table. But at some point we’re going to come together and unify,” Grimm said, adding that the “far-right faction” of the party “represents 15 percent of the country, but they’re trying to control the entire debate.”

Karl Rove: “A shutdown now would have much worse fallout than the one in 1995,” wrote Rove in his Wall Street Journal column last month. “Back then, seven of the government’s 13 appropriations bills had been signed into law, including the two that funded the military.
Jennifer Rubin: As a former labor attorney, I can best compare this to a strike. Both sides thought the other would blink; the result of the misjudgment is a work stoppage. But in a strike both sides eventually want to get a deal. In this case, the administration plainly doesn’t and has no incentive to offer the House Republicans any face-savers.

So what to do? The conservative media is in full denial, suggesting the Republicans not budge. That’s about what you’d expect from the people who thought Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) knew what he was doing.

Meanwhile, the crowd that started this confrontation seems to have come full circle. If you can believe it, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) now lectures Congress not to hold the government hostage. No, really:

Lee, who has said he hopes the current shutdown will be short, said the House has tried three different approaches to funding the government — all of which changed or delayed the health care reform law — and the Senate rejected them, so it’s time to try a new strategy.

“In light of that, let’s leave Obamacare for another day and not hold hostage the vast majority of government functions,” Lee said.

Yuval Levin: A small group of House Republicans, but one sufficiently large to deny the party a voting majority in the House, believed that the budget brinksmanship of the past few weeks would allow them to keep the government open but prevent Obamacare’s exchanges from starting up. Now that the opposite has happened, it would be worth their time to reconsider their options.

I could go on curating quotes from the likes of Susan Collins, Bob Corker, David Frum, and other congressmen, senators, and commentators who are going nuts over this shutdown. On day one.
- curtadams on October 1, 2013 at 4:59 pm
  
  Yuval Levin: A small group of House Republicans, but one sufficiently large to deny the party a voting majority in the House, believed that the budget brinksmanship of the past few weeks would allow them to keep the government open but prevent Obamacare’s exchanges from starting up. Now that the opposite has happened, it would be worth their time to reconsider their options.
  
  I’m suspicious of this claim. They have to have known it would have been far less of a problem for them to vote down Boehner’s last ransom note than to get a clean CR now. First, they’re getting horrible PR now, and second, they had a mechanism to force a clean vote last night but now they don’t until Boehner tries to write a new ransom note.
  
  IMO this is somebody trying to create such a group.
  - BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 5:09 pm
    
    One possible way off the ledge might be a moderate revolt as the shutdown drags on.
    
    Congressman Peter King has been leading the charge on this front, organizing a high-profile — and highly unsuccessful — plot Monday night to derail Boehner’s plans and demand a clean continuing resolution to fund the government. He said Tuesday he believed there were 100 Republicans who would vote for one if Boehner brought it to the floor. But not a single one brought it up in when the House GOP met that day.
    
    “All I know is I think this shutdown’s a bad idea and I want a clean CR,” he said.
    
    King may not be the most reliable whip, but he’s hardly alone in his frustrations with the tea party wing. Congressman Devin Nunes of California is telling any reporter who will listen that Cruz’s anti-Obamacare group are “lemming suicide bombers.” As of Tuesday afternoon, at least eight Republicans had publicly called for giving into Democratic demands and passing a clean CR, according to the Washington Post. A handful of others appear to be moving in the same direction.
    
    Congressman Tom Rooney of Florida told reporters that he saw little chance Democrats would cave on Obamacare and hoped there was a way to transition to a debate over the debt limit, where he thinks Republicans can bargain for spending cuts. And while Rooney may be playing along for now, he said he expected these types of frustrations to boil over for many members pretty soon.
    “Give it a couple of days, and I think that you’ll see it more palpable,” he said.
    - ThisMagicalEarth on October 1, 2013 at 8:39 pm
      
      Sounds like they are covering their asses and trying to make the GOP sound like it has a reasonable element.
      
      What kind of power is being held over them to make them act this way? Are the Koch brothers like some modern J. Edgar Hoover that has files of them with teenage prostitutes or goats or something? I don’t get their fear and insecurity. The older GOP like Nixon, Delay and Trent Lott were nasty as could be but actually more human to me than these guys. Dispicable, but more understandable.
      - janicket on October 1, 2013 at 10:40 pm
        
        Those guys (Nixon et al.) were just power-hungry sleazoids. These guys (GOTP) are true believers of all the right-wing propaganda.
euzoius on October 1, 2013 at 4:53 pm

As Repubs get ready to try gambits like voting to fund just the VA and National Parks, WH press guy responds by saying such partial funding is “not serious”.

Whoa, pretty harsh! Stinging stuff.

How about saying that we’re not going to fund just those parts of the gub’mint that radical Repub ideology finds acceptable. Or that we’re not going to let Repubs advance divisive strategies that select winners and losers in their shutdown. Everyone is a loser a result of the Repub shutdown.

This has been coming for a long time, and I’m not seeing much Dem coordination or strategy. They certainly don’t seem to be upping the ante in order to end the shutdown.
- AkamaiGuy on October 1, 2013 at 5:03 pm
  
  And this: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/reid-house-gop-s-new-plan-just-another-wacky-idea–2
- ThisMagicalEarth on October 1, 2013 at 8:41 pm
  
  The President says he won’t sign partial restoration bills and it didn’t pass the House with enough votes to cover a veto.
rikyrah on October 1, 2013 at 4:55 pm

You are so funny. I need this..
AkamaiGuy on October 1, 2013 at 4:59 pm

How’s this for a start?:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/top-senate-dem-on-house-gop-s-latest-spending-plan-come-on
- AkamaiGuy on October 1, 2013 at 5:00 pm
  
  What’s the darn HTML code to make this an active link?
  - BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 5:13 pm
    
    Two options.
    
    First option is to use standard HTML.
    
    <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/top-senate-dem-on-house-gop-s-latest-spending-plan-come-on">Talking Points Memo</a>
    
    Second option is to use shortcut (only works for http, not https addresses).
    
    [Talking Points Memo http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/top-senate-dem-on-house-gop-s-latest-spending-plan-come-on%5D
    
    I’m writing in Plain Text mode, but they will work in AutoFormat or HTML Formatted modes.
    - AkamaiGuy on October 1, 2013 at 5:22 pm
      
      Hallelujah! Gracias.
- AkamaiGuy on October 1, 2013 at 5:22 pm
  
  Okay, trying with an actual link:
  
  Top Senate Dem on House GOP’s Latest Spending Plan
  - BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 5:28 pm
    
    There you go.
Anonymous on October 1, 2013 at 5:15 pm

I dunno, Boo–there’s also this: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/10/democrats-have-already-caved-republicans

“Democrats have already agreed to fund the government at Republican levels. In other words, they’ve already caved in. It wasn’t even a compromise. They’ve just flatly given in to Republican demands to continue funding at sequester levels. This is the CR that Republicans now refuse to pass.”

I so very much hope you’re right.
- BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 5:26 pm
  
  Look, I’ve written about this several times.
  
  Should the House Dems publicly declare that they won’t vote for a sequester-level CR and take some heat for the shutdown, or should they cave on that for now and let the Republicans take ALL the heat, stand back, and watch them roast themselves alive?
  
  I could go either way on that, but their solution was to shorten the CR to Nov. 15th, meaning that it’s only 45 days of sequester funding and then we’re back at a crisis, but this time with the GOP shattered and traumatized.
  - Anonymous on October 1, 2013 at 5:53 pm
    
    Well, the GOP will be shattered and traumatized, after having achieved their goal, no? Whereas we’ll be energized and united, after having accepted their demands.
    
    I do not think that ‘shattered and traumatized’ will lead to any policy changes.
    
    (For the record, I don’t think Dems should’ve declared that they wouldn’t vote for a sequester-level CR. I think they should’ve declared that they would only vote for a CR with Medicare For All and universal preschool and a federal minimum wage of $12.25/hour. Because we already are taking some heat for the shutdown, but we’re not taking any spoils.)
    
    I’d love to hear you respond to Digby’s comments, to which TH linked, above: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/crazy-like-foxes-even-paul-ryans.html
    - Stephen Stralka on October 1, 2013 at 6:22 pm
      
      I would say two things, myself. First, there are more fundamental things than the sequester at stake here, such as whether we’re going to allow Ted Cruz to appoint himself dictator. The Democrats do need to fight the sequester, but we have to get through one vote at a time.
      
      And second, the sequester itself can be looked at as a consequence of the Democrats making concessions in the first debt ceiling crisis. So aside from fixing the funding, the first thing that needs to be done to start fixing the sequester is not to repeat the same mistake.
      - Anonymous on October 1, 2013 at 7:45 pm
        
        So what we’re angling to gain here is the status quo ante of ‘no making concessions for a debt ceiling increase?’ And that will somehow disempower the crazies of the Republican Party? Going back to 2011?
      - priscianus jr on October 2, 2013 at 1:55 am
        
        Yes, kind of. Especially since they are already disempowering themselves before our very eyes.
    - Brendan Skwire on October 1, 2013 at 6:50 pm
      
      what booman said. The dems hate the sequester. 45 days of crap to deal with a destroyed party? no problem.
      - Anonymous on October 1, 2013 at 7:08 pm
        
        In what way with the Republicans be ‘destroyed?’
        
        Maybe that’s the part I’m not seeing.
      - BooMan on October 1, 2013 at 7:18 pm
        
        Depends on your definition of “destroyed,” I guess.
        
        They will still be one of two major parties in this country with many resources and members of Congress and a massive media machine.
        
        So, in that sense, almost nothing could actually destroy them.
        
        But if we ever want to end the constant fighting over every single budget item and every debt ceiling hike, we have to break the cycle. Even Boehner knows this.
        
        Right now, we can’t even pay our debts until the last possible moment, if at all. We can’t make any decisions on appropriations because everything is set at arbitrary sequestration levels.
        
        It can’t go on like this.
        
        So, we aren’t going to get higher CR levels until we break the GOP.
        
        And that is what we (actually they) are doing as we speak.
      - Anonymous on October 1, 2013 at 7:41 pm
        
        That’s the bit I don’t understand. By what mechanism will they be forced to stop the constant fighting?
        
        If Boehner passes anything with a majority of Dem votes, he’s out and the new Speaker is even worse, no? So the whackjobs will have learned this lesson: ‘Don’t let a RINO like Boehner be Speaker.’
        
        I’m not sure what else they’d possibly learn.
        
        And if Digby and Drum are right–“Democrats have already agreed to fund the government at Republican levels…”–then shouldn’t they, logically, pull this same kind of stunt whenever there’s a dispute? Even if they fold on the shut-down tomorrow, they’ve gained and we’ve lost, in the reality-based world. Because the ‘clean CR’ looks more like their preferred budget than ours. No?
        
        We can say that they’re ‘broken,’ but what, specifically, is weakened? Their resolve? Their unity? If we accept that this actually worked for them, up to a point–and didn’t force any policy outcomes that they dislike, that weren’t already happening–then why should we expect them to act differently in the future?
      - torpid bunny on October 1, 2013 at 7:55 pm
        
        The mechanism is the huge damage they will do to republican electoral chances outside of deep red districts. And this is also why Senate republicans, even from deep red states, are out of patience. Because senators don’t have “safe” districts per se. So they can either put a generational stink on the party and kiss goodbye to senate and likely house majorities for many elections, as well as pissing off plenty of non-koch donors, or they can cut out the extremist brinksmanship and get back in touch with democratic norms. And that choice will happen right now, in the next couple of weeks. And if it goes on too long, they might not have a choice. That’s the theory anyway.
      - Anonymous on October 1, 2013 at 8:10 pm
        
        So the idea is that nothing much will happen now. But in November, 2014, voters will remember this so viscerally that Republicans will lose a shitload of seats?
        
        That theory does not make me happy. A year from now, this will be a faint memory to all but committed partisans. I hope there’s a chance of some more-immediately fallout.
Superpole on October 1, 2013 at 6:53 pm

Bloggo world– frequently wrong.

The “demise of the GOP”… I’ve seen this movie before.

When Obama won in 2008, “expert” bobbleheads like James Carville predicted a “40 year democratic dynasty” in our nation.

Well, what happened?

Here’s what: The shellacking in 2010; just two years later. the GOP put together a well funded, well organized plan and succeeded in winning I believe it was eleven state gubernatorial elections, states which had dem governors– bringing in doofs like Walker in WI and Scott in FL. now those states are more or less royally screwed. Some of you may remember a recall effort against Walker failed.

2010 saw the teabagger mob elected to the House– and now they are F***ing things up for all of us.

The notion the latest kabuki theater is ALL going to be blamed on the GOP and they are “going away” is a joke.

The only campfire I see is a bunch of moldy, wet economic kindling which will never catch on fire, never get us out of the economic ditch.

Our dysfunctional/incompetent government is hardly something to celebrate.
- priscianus jr on October 2, 2013 at 1:57 am
  
  2010? What about 2012?
  - Superpole on October 2, 2013 at 6:46 am
    
    what about 2012?
    
    OK, what?
    
    2012 was a POTUS election year where dem voters make an effort to show up at the polls.
    
    2010 was a midterm election; dems did not make an effort to show up at the polls.
    - centerfielddj on October 2, 2013 at 10:52 am
      
      The problem the GOP is creating for itself thru their persistent governing-by-crisis strategy is that they are allowing the arrogance brought on by their House and State Legislative gerrymands to be the tail that wags the dog. They can’t gerrymand Senate and Governor races; nor can they gerrymand Presidential elections. If they continue to hurt, anger and insult growing demographic groups and drag the Party’s image down, they won’t win a Presidential election or a Senate majority. With Judicial, Executive and Federal Agency appointments controlled by the POTUS and Senate, that’s rather a BFD, isn’t it?
      - Superpole on October 2, 2013 at 6:54 pm
        
        “They can’t gerrymand Senate and Governor races…”
        
        The GOP doesn’t need to gerrymand Governor races; in 2010 they managed to win something like eleven gubernatorial seats in states like WI and FL simply by having a well organized, well funded plan. now those states are screwed.
        
        do the Dems have any sort of plan to win these governor seats back? Doubtful.
        
        regarding the GOP burning demographic bridges and “never” winning another POTUS race or wrecking their chances to win control of the senate– we’ll see.
        I think this notion is a stretch.
        
        Bush won re-election in 2004, in spite of the face it was apparent he lied about WMD’s in Iraq and the whole affair was a fiasco at that point.
        
        The Dems are not improving their image with voters who are UNemployed or under-employed. the notion the crappy economy can be solely blamed on the GOP is again, a stretch.
      - centerfielddj on October 2, 2013 at 11:37 pm
        
        Presuming 2014 will be a repeat of 2010 is flawed reasoning. I have no idea why you believe this will be the case. 2010 was not a repeat of 2006, after all, a mid-term election where the Democrats took both houses of Congress and did very well in gubernatorial and State Legislative races.
      - Superpole on October 3, 2013 at 6:08 am
        
        “flawed reasoning”.
        
        I brought up the shellacking in 2010 as a response to those claiming the GOP is finished. obviously they are not.
        
        Regarding 2014 midterm, I’m not predicting the outcome will be exactly the same as 2010. however, it’s easy to predict incumbents in both parties could have a tough time being re-elected, since the economy still sucks and people vote their pocketbooks.
        
        the abysmal 14% public approval rating of congress applies to both repuglicans and democrats; not just the repugs.
      - centerfielddj on October 4, 2013 at 10:42 am
        
        There’s lots of Republican incumbents. The majority of House, Governor and State Legislators up for reelection in 2014 are Republicans.
mainsailset on October 1, 2013 at 7:09 pm

Choke look what Sally Kohn has up at the Opinion page of Fox News.
- priscianus jr on October 2, 2013 at 1:51 am
  
  What??? Has Fox News gone completely SANE?
Andrew Longman on October 1, 2013 at 7:33 pm

I am pretty convinced that maybe 20% of Americans and all of the whack job far right can’t wait for the Rapture (or not end of times, end of government– except to give me the entitlement I am entitled to) and were perfectly happy to set themselves on fire to make it happen.

This time the democrats let them do it.
Veritas78 on October 1, 2013 at 7:38 pm

Booman, you do know that when the cognitive dissonance sinks in, some of these people will swiftly resort to violence?

They’ve got the guns, they’ve got the indoctrination, they’ve got videos of recent examples (and I’ll bet they study those).

That’s a central reason not to give in (to our future terrorists), but it’s up next. As we win, we’ll have ugly, bloody losses.

Sit With Me For A While By The Fire

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