Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
The battle over raising the debt ceiling has made some interesting bedfellows and even more intriguing and perplexing moments. At this instant, we are awaiting the vote on Speaker Boehner’s Plan which has been delayed to allow the mainline Republicans to scurry about coaxing tea partiers off their high horses named “No Taxes,” and “Cut Government.” For his part, Boehner has the distinct look of the bridegroom anxiously waiting at the legislative altar while the cavorting bride finishes up at the ‘No, no Nanette” (you’ll recall that ditty, “Tea For Two.’) themed bachelorette party over at Michele Bachmann’s encounter group/ chapel/ballroom.
Boehner’s position is curious. Knowing full well his tea party friendly plan is DOA in Harry Reid’s Senate and faces a certain veto in the event of a Democratic Senate tram crash, he plods on, orange tan intact, but lubricated with enough sweat to float the barges building Palin’s “Bridge to Nowhere.”
Enter now that modern day Solon and runner-up Presidential candidate, John McCain, sounding almost, well, statemanesque. Decrying the newbies in the Congress flush with conservative street cred, our Senator from Cactus, is shocked–shocked — shocked that the Young Turks actually meant what they said about wanting to throw the federal government in a bathtub and choke the life out of it. And if there’s no porcelain around, a debt ceiling spiked with a balanced budget amendment will do nicely for the moral horde who took Washington by storm in the last election cycle, armed with a nose chain Grover Norquist pledge to oppose ANY new taxes — even closing loopholes for the Mark Cubans’/Richard Gates’ of the world. What do you mean a seven year depreciation write off for my Gulfstream 5? Anything more than five years is positively Marxian. Next, you’ll be rescinding the cake donations for the poor charitable deduction!
The venerable Senate dinosaur was unimpressed by the kiddies’ hijinks that threaten to force the nation into default and lead to a downgrade of our credit rating even as we claw from the mire of the Bush-borne recession. “Bizarro” and “Deceivers,” he cried as he rose to speak in the great well of the Senate. “Too little, too late,” said we as we sat down in forlorn disgust in our upside down mortgaged homes. Here he is sounding like a grownup even as we are all thinking that this is the guy who almost put Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the nuclear codes:
Source: Washington Post
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_LQtXytLTQ&feature=player_embedded
I’m just waiting for one of the teabaggers to call the budget “my precious”.
To me the most interesting part of the McCain story was that it was Uncle Ruperts Wall Street Journal that called the teabaggers “hobbits” and said the suffered from “black and white” thinking.
It appears the the masters of the universe are growing ill at ease with the Frankenstein monster they created and fund. How are they going to turn the baggers off now that they served their purpose, winning Congress in ’10 and saving the disastrous Bush tax cuts, so they don’t blow it by running more witches and door nobs that win Republican primaries but fail in the general?
Hannah,
Great link. The balanced budget amendment is a farce. It is a red herring to make people on Fox News think the Republicans actually care about spending. They only care about spending for Main Street because it gets in the way of spending for their base on Wall Street.
Here’s a good post on their balanced budget amendment
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/like-activist-judges-then-youll-love-the-balanced-budget-amendment/2011/07/28/gIQAhFOweI_blog.html
Mark,
Great video with an appropriate song title!
Mark.
Great story. I read about McCain actually sounding a bit like the old McCain. He has nothing to lose and he sees the Republican party imploding over the Tea Party demands. They are not a political faction. They are anarchists.
No vote tonight.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0722/Five-ways-US-default-would-hit-your-pocketbook/Devalued-dollar
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-28/u-s-debt-agreement-delay-risks-lehman-like-moment-gieve-says.html
Thanks mespo and ay. Our tea party bloggers will probably arrive soon.
It’s a shame when a formerly respectable Senator becomes possessed by the spirit of Abe Simpson as if he were speaking to a field full of cabbage heads.
Wait. Let me correct that. Only half of it is a joke.
It’s a shame when a formerly respectable Senator becomes possessed by the spirit of Abe Simpson.
This has started out very interesting SWM and mespo….
SM:
“McCain’s criticism of the tea party did not sit well with Sharon Angle.”
***************
Unlike the more genial cobras, tea partiers eat their old.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/angle-calls-mccain-lord-of-the-tarp/ McCain’s criticism of the tea party did not sit well with Sharon Angle.
Good stuff, SM!
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/60173.html Palin waves primary threat at GOP house members if they vote for the Boehner bill.
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/07/the-gop-splinters.html