Dana Milbank, WA Post: "This is government by ransom, piracy over policy."

[pnwmom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-the-great-gop-leadership-turnaround/2013/09/18/8dd9b374-20a2-11e3-966c-9c4293c47ebe_story.html

They can laugh now, but polls indicate that the public would again blame a government shutdown on the GOP, and rightly so. This is not a case of both sides needing to compromise. Republicans don’t have the votes to enact their policies, so they’re attempting this back-door method: Agree to our demands or we’ll take down the government and the economy. This is government by ransom, piracy over policy.

“We have anarchists running the House of Representatives,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said after House leaders endorsed the defund-or-default effort.

The few Republicans in the caucus who have long memories know the backbenchers are sending them on a suicide mission. “We can’t let the government shut down,” Rep. Peter King (N.Y.) said after the meeting. “We can’t be kamikazes and we can’t be General Custer.”

But tea party conservatives driving the strategy didn’t experience the 1990s shellacking. “I was still in high school,” Rep. Trent Franks (Ariz.), who is 56, quipped to reporters. “I’m convinced there were more things that caused our political difficulty than the shutdown.”

SNIP

[Brigid]

1. I'm 55. I *do* remember the great 1994 shutdown.

The Repugs lost that battle badly. In his memoir, Clinton said that one GOPer, I forget who, told him later, "We thought you'd cave.". I hope Obama has read that book too.

[meow2u3]

2. It's more government by extortion

Either way, the GOP is acting like the freakin' mafia, trying to extort concessions from Obama and the Democrats by threatening government shutdown. They ought to be indicted.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Or government by tantrum

They act like a bunch of irritable pre-schoolers

[jaysunb]

4. ROFL !

But tea party conservatives driving the strategy didn’t experience the 1990s shellacking. “I was still in high school,” Rep. Trent Franks (Ariz.), who is 56, quipped to reporters. “I’m convinced there were more things that caused our political difficulty than the shutdown.”

In high school ? 1993 ?

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

6. So the response to Franks would be

You were still in high school in your 30s? Why was that?

[GTurck]

7. Yeah...

he was only 36 and still had a year to go. LOL

[blkmusclmachine]

5. Bipartisanship You Can Believe In! And 11-Dimensional Checkers, Too!