While we all regroup and consider whether or not the Republicans have learned anything, we can take a look at some comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY):
He said there’s no reason to go through the political wringer again in January, when the stopgap Congress passed late Wednesday expires.
“One of my favorite old Kentucky sayings is there’s no education in the second kick of a mule. The first kick of a mule was when we shut the government down in the mid 1990s and the second kick was over the last 16 days,” he said. “There is no education in the second kick of a mule. There will not be a government shutdown.
“I think we have fully now acquainted our new members with what a losing strategy that is,” he added.
By “new members,” he means Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and (especially) Ted Cruz. But before you get too excited about McConnell giving away the next hostage, make sure that you read this:
McConnell told fellow Republican senators that he would not allow the deal to cross two important red lines: it would not raise taxes and it would not undermine the spending reforms achieved under the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA).
Perhaps he wanted to preserve those two things so that they can be bargained away during the upcoming budget conference, but until the Republicans learn that they can’t oppose all tax increases forever under any circumstances and expect to get concessions in return, they are going to keep getting kicked in the head by that mule.
