I wonder how popular a party like the current Republican party would be in Canada,
I'd guess less than Doug Hennings flying carpet party
It's an illusion!
I wonder how many people here actually know who Doug Henning is?!
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
^ The only positive out of this is that Boehner may now have the opportunity to show some balls against the Tea Party and possibly bring them in line. But I doubt it.
A leopard doesn't change it's spots.
Boehner first threatened to default in the mid 90s when Clinton was president and Gingrich was speaker.
The problem was, the rest of the party wasn't fully tuned in to that lunacy yet, and Clinton called their bluff.
Now though, there are more leopards with similar spots to him and he feels emboldened.
He's an all-time-great American Political Scumbag. All Time Great, and there have been some notorious scumbags in American politics.
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John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich. The biographer who somewhere down the line tackles the question of Boehner's legacy will do well to simply throw out any references to party affiliation, because the thing that has made Boehner who he is — the thing that has finally lifted him to the apex of legislative power in America — has almost nothing to do with his being a Republican.
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Of all the longtime Republican Beltway hacks who are now scrambling to find ways to throw enough sunshine on the Tea Party mob to keep their jobs, Boehner has been the most hilariously transparent. In yet another scene straight out of a screwball comedy — maybe it was an early hommage to the now-departed Leslie Nielsen — Boehner in November 2009 stood up in front of a crowd of Tea Partiers who had gathered to protest the upcoming Obamacare vote, and tried to stroke his audience by holding up a copy of the Constitution. Professing his love for the sacred document, Boehner pledged to "stand here with our Founding Fathers, who wrote in the preamble: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident.'" The crowd was silent. Boehner had confused the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence.
Boehner's irrepressible hackosity is a serious problem for the Republican establishment, which desperately needs a more convincing con man to stave off voter anger on the right. In this regard, the contrast between Boehner and Littleton, the Tea Party leader in Boehner's home state, is interesting. The two men live in the same place, the small township of West Chester near Cincinnati, so Littleton is very familiar with Boehner. But Littleton's opinion of the Republican establishment couldn't be lower: It was precisely programs like the Medicare drug benefit bill and No Child Left Behind, programs he considers unacceptably wasteful and intrusive, that moved him to get into politics. "These were all Republican programs," Littleton says. "If you look at Republican congressmen from Ohio, they all voted for this stuff."
What's interesting is that the survival of the hack political class that Boehner represents now depends almost entirely on their ability to neutralize grass-roots leaders like Littleton — and the word "leader" here is used in the real sense of the word. While Boehner often negotiates for a Republican delegation that winds up rejecting the compromises he reaches, Littleton, when I speak with him, strikes me in exactly the opposite way — I feel very aware that I am talking to someone with a lot of political power, who represents quite a lot of actual human beings.
But while more than two million people added their names to a website run by The Senate Conservative Fund — a political PAC that supports Cruz– urging Congress defund the Affordable Care Act, popular support for the health care law has actually increased since the shutdown began on Sep. 30. The Gallup poll reported on Tuesday that “half of Americans today want the Affordable Care Act repealed or scaled back, down from 57 percent in January 2011.”
In three week period following Cruz’s speech — even as GOP’s national approval ratings plummeted — conservatives frantically built their fundraising lists and campaign coffers. In the last quarter, Cruz’s political action committee raised in $797,000, nearly twice what it pulled in the quarter prior, and Heritage Action — which has pressured conservatives to vote against any bill that does not undermine Obamcare — collected $330,000.
Unfortunately, the rest of the country hasn’t fared nearly as well. Economists predict that the country lost thousands of jobs, billions in economic output, diminished consumer confidence, and the prospect of a lower credit rating.
My friend said this about Cruz - I thought it was an apt description.
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Whenever I see Ted Cruz, he makes me imagine that Bill Murray and the actor who played Frank Burns (Larry Linville) had a love child, but then left it out in the rain to mildew.
Does anyone have any info on what membership in the republican party is doing right now? The worst outcome of this would be moderates quiting the republican party and move to independants or democrats. Without a 3rd party and with gerrymandered districts the only way to defeat the crazies is buy beating them in primaries.
Loss of support of republicans will reduce there representation in the senate where seats are competitive but in the house the gerrymandering has eliminated a lot of competitive races. So less republicans means a greater % of crazy republicans.
Does anyone have any info on what membership in the republican party is doing right now? The worst outcome of this would be moderates quiting the republican party and move to independants or democrats. Without a 3rd party and with gerrymandered districts the only way to defeat the crazies is buy beating them in primaries.
Freudian typo is accurate. It'll be really interesting to see where the money goes this next election cycle. Big business would be wise to back traditional republicans in a big way to try and counter the tea party effect and the uncertainty it brings.
Freudian typo is accurate. It'll be really interesting to see where the money goes this next election cycle. Big business would be wise to back traditional republicans in a big way to try and counter the tea party effect and the uncertainty it brings.
Its a fine line to walk though. For Republican Senators no big deal. For Republican Congressmen if they are seen as being bought or a part of "Big Business", then they had better have gotten through the primary. Primaries are without a doubt the biggest threat to Republicans. The voting blocks who show up (old people, religious fanatics) will always go with the most extreme candidates. If a known "Big Business" backed Republican candidate gets into a primary against a known "Science denier, mouth breather, logic denier, Jesus wrote the constitution believer" Tea Party candidate, the Tea Partier is going to win more often than not. Republicans would be better off disavowing the Tea Party and simply forcing them to go 3rd party. Accepting them as part of the party has put them in a very bad way.
__________________
"Think I'm gonna be the scapegoat for the whole damn machine? Sheeee......."
How do you disavow the Tea Party, cant anyone join the Republicans? I don't think you can discriminate against crazy people. The leadership could turn on them but since the leadership is elected they would just get booted if they don't pay at least lip service to the crazies.
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
Important to note: the final bill that passed in the House did so with the support of 87 Republicans. Were it not for this rule change, the shutdown could have been averted entirely assuming those same 87 Republicans would have voted for a Democrat-sponsored bill (and we have no reason to believe that they wouldn't, seeing as how the GOP won no concessions).
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