EDITORIAL
The GOP is trying to spin the media into reporting that any government shutdown will be the fault of the democrats. Of course the media is already in bed with the democrats so they are blaming the potential shutdown on republicans. But why is none of the blame being attached to the TEA party?
Boehner didn't want a shutdown and neither did Harry Reid. But Ted Cruz and other TEA party emboldened legislators who have made so much noise and so many threats have ended up controlling the outcome. In reality, they should be the ones who own the consequences of a shutdown.
Over the weekend talking heads with sources inside the Cruz faction, such as Kim Strassel, asked the Cruz folks what was the goal of their strategy. The answer seemed to be that they could raise a lot of money off of the obstruction and get a lot of attention. When pressed for an explanation of what their back up plan was, they admittedly had none. The reports are that the entire thing was, just as many of us thought all along, just for show.
While experienced Washington legislators spend most of their time building coalitions of votes and getting things done, the TEA party/Ron Paul obstructionists seem to have no interest in actual progress.
Some say that the last government shutdown was expected to backfire on President Clinton. Instead, political historians will tell you, it burned the GOP beyond recognition for several years. And that may very well be the only back up plan Cruz and his faction have in mind. After all, they ran as republicans but really see no value in the two party system.
They often cite President Washington's warnings about the development of political parties as one of the things that motivates them. But as long as the system is set up to give a the party in the majority virtual control over each house of the Congress, lodging protest votes against republicans does nothing more than give more power to the democrats. So why hasn't Cruz and company been going after democrats instead of bashing republicans?
Outside conservative groups—Heritage Action, the Senate Conservatives Fund—have raised real cash on this venture, and they've spent most of it attacking House and Senate Republicans. A bare trickle of dollars, if that much, has gone to directing public ObamaCare anger toward Democratic senators such as Arkansas's Mark Pryor, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, Alaska's Mark Begich, or North Carolina's Kay Hagan.
The result is that, while the defunders will get their vote in the Senate, they laid no groundwork—no sustained or coordinated advertising or Web campaign, no public uprising in key states—to pressure Democrats to vote with them. This is an error of embarrassing proportions. [Wall Street Journal]
It's as if Cruz and company joined a football team but insist upon bringing bats, and gloves and complaining that the teams aren't playing baseball. How does that help their team win?
Boehner and company could seize upon this opportunity and use it as a teaching moment for the young TEA party folks.
Politics is a team sport and not every rookie player gets to be the starting quarterback. If these folks are not suited for the rough and tumble world of football, then maybe they would be better off to stay with soccer where, considering how little scoring is ever done, the entire thing is obviously just the kind of spectacle they seem to like.
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