Congressman Confronts Park Ranger

[Andara Bledin]

The entire problem with the shutdown is it's just one giant pissing match between the Repubs and the Dems. And lots of people get affected but Congress doesn't give a crap.

What Gravekeeper said.

This is a situation engineered entirely by a small portion of one side who is abusing a loophole in the system to try to bully everybody else into giving them what they want or they'll burn the entire house to the ground.

The worst part is that it's not really about the ACA. That's just a target of opportunity. The Tea Partiers ran on a platform of stopping the government, so they have no reason to ever let it start back up again.

[s_stabeler]

what's really annoying is that the Republican party is close to a deal with the Democrats (and a true compromise, by the looks of it, with the medical device tax repealed, but the ACA funded) but the |Tea Party are saying they will put primary challengers to any republican who votes for it. So, it seems the Tea Party will only accept capitulation, not compromise. This could get ugly. (I'm guessing it is 50-50 if there will be a default or not- it rather depends on if Bohner decides to bring things to a vote or not. ( basically, will Bohner prioritize the title of speaker, or the job of speaker? Because his job is pretty clear: not to be controlled by a minority of republicans and bring a CR & an extension to the debt celing to a vote. Currently, he seems overproud of having the title "Speaker of the House" but not the actual responsibility ( because the Tea Party is deciding what is brought to the floor))

[Rapscallion]

Latest news is that there's looking to be dissent in the right wing ranks and potential sufficient discord. I'm not putting out any links as the situation seems fluid, and I don't want to give false hope.

Rapscallion

[wolfie]

Ahh, but my good Yena, Faux News said it, so it must be true! After all, they're Fair and Balanced(tm)!

And the pork rinds I'm snacking on are Kosher For Passover(tm).

One that I heard in the news was a Republican rejecting one of the Democrats' offers of compromise on the grounds "They say they're willing to negotiate AFTER we surrender unconditionally - that's not compromise". Considering the Republican position (pushed by their Tea Party contingent) was that they'd be willing to negotiate if the Democrats surrendered unconditionally (i.e. allowed ACA to be wiped out in exchange for a continuing resolution), methinks he doth protest too much.

What I'd like to see happen is the moderate Republicans responding to the Tea Party threat to "take them out" in the primaries by doing a bit of groundwork, and telling the Tea Partiers "We WILL be running as candidates in the next election - either as Republicans, or if you block us from getting the nomination, under another banner running AGAINST the Republicans".

Considering the public reaction to the shutdown, and the Tea Party reaction to any attempt at compromise, it looks like the Republicans are in real trouble - for a candidate to get the nomination, they need to be an "ideological purist" to get Tea Party support, but anyone of that stripe is going to be seen by the public as too much of a wackdoodle (term I've seen on Derf's "The City") to get elected. In order to preserve the party, if the moderates can't kick the Tea Party out of the "big tent", they need to leave, set up their own smaller tent where the Tea Party is not welcome, and turn it into a 3-way race. In a contest between the Democrats, the Tea Party Republicans, and the Whigs (borrowing a name from history), the TPRs are headed to the scrapheap of history.