Boehner’s idea of leadership

Los Angeles Times: House Speaker John A. Boehner called last fall’s government shutdown a “very predictable disaster” that he warned his fellow Republicans to avoid, but ultimately went along with it at the behest of colleagues intent on a standoff with President Obama over his healthcare law.

Making his “Tonight Show” debut Thursday, the Ohio Republican told host Jay Leno that the episode reflected the challenges he faces leading an often rambunctious House majority.

“When I looked up, I saw my colleagues going this way.  And you learn that a leader without followers is simply a man taking a walk,” he said. “So I said, ‘You want to fight this fight?  I’ll go fight the fight with you.’ But it was a very predictable disaster.”

Leading by following. It’s the Boehner way.

After telling this little story, The Orange Weeper explained his job as Speaker, as he saw it: “Some members, I have to be the big brother figure. Some, I have to be the father figure.  Others, I have to be the dean of students or the principal. Some of them, I have to be the Gestapo.”

And sometimes he has to be the irresponsible babysitter who lets the kids eat all the candy they want, so he doesn’t have to listen to them cry about it. And if the kids are up all night puking afterward? Not his fault.

[photo by Gage Skidmore]

Poll: GOP approvals in a nosedive

Greg Sargent: A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that disapproval of the GOP’s handling of the budget has jumped to 70 percent. Meanwhile, approval of Obama’s handling of it has ticked modestly upwards.

Only 24 percent of Americans approve of the GOP’s handling of the budget, after a week of battling over the shutdown. Only 23 percent of independents approve, versus 73 percent who disapprove. Among moderates, those numbers are 22-73. That’s nearly three fourths of independents and moderates disapproving. (While independents disapprove of Obama’s handling of it, the numbers are far less lopsided; moderates overall approve of his handling.)

But what’s even more striking is the degree to which even Republicans are divided over the GOP’s handling of all of this, with approval being largely concentrated among conservative Republicans.

Meanwhile, wingnut pundit Erick Erickson, who resides in a private island somewhere far off the shores of reality, tells the faithful at RedState.com, “Republicans are winning the shutdown fight, and Democrats know it.”

Yeah, if they were winning by any more it might actually kill them.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

Cruz insists everything’s fine, as his party crashes down around his ears

Raw Story: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday asserted that his crusade to kill President Barack Obama’s health care law by shutting down the U.S. government had not damaged the Republican Party in any way.

During an interview on CNN, host Candy Crowley asked Cruz if he had hurt the GOP brand.

“Not remotely,” Cruz laughed. “But I also think far too many people are worried about politics.”

“Listen, if we worry about what’s impacting the American people, the politics will take care of itself,” he continued. “The politicians that are gazing at polls — there is a reason why the most common sentiment across this country is that politicians aren’t listening to us, there’s a reason why Congress has a 10 to 15 percent approval rating.”

Unless I’m misunderstanding Ted here, he’s basically saying that people are spending too much time looking at polls and not enough time finding out what people think — which is, of course, complete nonsense. Polls are what people think. That’s the whole freakin’ point.

So let’s take a look at what people are thinking about the shutdown and how it’s not hurting the GOP at all, shall we?

Teagan Goddard: A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that if the 2014 midterm elections were held today, Republicans “would be in grave danger of losing control of the House of Representatives.”

In a series of 24 surveys in GOP-held House districts, Republican incumbents are behind in match ups with generic Democratic challengers in 17 districts. In 4 other districts, the incumbent Republican trails after being told that the incumbent supported the government shutdown. In just 3 districts are incumbents leading generic challengers after voters are told the incumbent supported the government shutdown.

Democrats need 17 seats to win control of the House. These results show that if the election were held today, such a pickup would be within reach.

Ted Cruz is Chicken Little in reverse; he’s saying everything is fine, while the sky actually is falling.

And it’s falling hard.

Highly Unserious

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle.

This is a Republican shutdown, plain and simple

James Fallows lists “The Two Basic Facts That Should Be in Every Shutdown Story”:

1. If the House of Representatives voted on a “clean” budget bill — one that opened up the closed federal offices but did not attempt to defund the Obama health care program — that bill would pass, and the shutdown would be over. Nearly all Democrats would vote for it, as would enough Republicans to end the shutdown and its related damage. (And of course it has already passed the Senate, repeatedly, and would be signed by the president.) For illustrations of the wanton damage, see here and here.
   
   
2. So far House Speaker John Boehner has refused to let this vote occur. His Tea Party contingent knows how the vote would go and therefore does not want it to happen; and such is Boehner’s fear of them, and fear for his job as Speaker, that he will not let it take place.

Therefore, the shutdown is a strictly Republican baby. If the bill that John Boehner now has stuffed in his back pocket were to go up for a vote, it would pass and that would be that. The shutdown continues because Boehner refuses to end it.

Period. End of story.

[photo by Gage Skidmore]

GOP plan to stand with the American people not going very well

Quinnipiac: American voters oppose 72 - 22 percent Congress shutting down the federal government to block implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

Voters also oppose 64 - 27 percent blocking an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling as a way to stop Obamacare, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.
[…]
President Barack Obama gets a negative 45 - 49 percent overall job approval rating, compared to his 46 - 48 percent score August 2.

American voters disapprove 74 - 17 percent of the job Republicans in Congress are doing, their lowest score ever, and disapprove 60 - 32 percent of the job Democrats are doing.

"Americans are certainly not in love with Obamacare, but they reject decisively the claim by Congressional Republicans that it is so bad that it’s worth closing down the government to stop it," says Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

“President Barack Obama enters this standoff over the budget with an edge over Congressional Republicans in the voters’ eyes.”

Republicans have been claiming they stand with voters here, but they so clearly do not — and it may cost them dearly in the future.

Looking at the 2014 Congressional races, voters pick a generic Democrat over a generic Republican candidate 43 - 34 percent, the widest Democratic margin measured so far.

“On almost all questions, voters see President Obama as more reasonable, and better able to handle the issues,” Brown said. “But it is not because the president is beloved. He remains under water in job approval and is tied with Congressional Republicans on who best handles the budget deficit. Voters are angry at almost everyone in Washington over their inability to keep the trains running, but they are madder at the Republicans than the Democrats.

“In general, the Republican brand is down as evidenced by the Democrats’ unusually large lead in the so called generic ballot. But we have 13 months before an election can translate this public opinion edge into electoral gains and in politics that amount of time is forever.”

Hands up, who thinks Republicans plan on being less crazy and irresponsible in the coming thirteen months? Who’s been living in a broom closet since 2010?

[photo by IPBrian]

Stories to Watch: 4/7/11

Nothing much going on. How about you? Now here's the news...


The election night that would not die: vote count corrections are popping up all over the state of Wisconsin. Go here, scroll down to the updates at the end of the article, and keep your hands away from your hair.


Wait a second. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Prosser picked up 7,582 votes from Waukesha County. There's reason to doubt the veracity of this previously unknown cache of votes; Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus is a Republican activist and she's previously been under scrutiny for her handling of election data.


Gay caveman! You'll never look at Fred and Barney the same way again.


Defunding Planned Parenthood and crippling the EPA are the hills Republicans have chosen to die on.


The question (almost) no one's asking: does a government shutdown have a price tag? Yeah, it does. And it's hefty. Kind of makes Republican claims that they're being forced into a shutdown by "fiscal irresponsibility" ring a little hollow, doesn't it?


Finally, what you already knew is now confirmed: the New Black Panther case was pretty much bullshit.

Stories to Watch: 3/1/11

Whoo-hoo! It's March first! That means that, up here in Wisconsin, it's only like two or three months before spring. Big snow storm predicted this weekend, so I'm trying to avoid spring fever. They say that March goes out the opposite of the way it came in. Today was really nice, so... Crap. Now here's the news...


Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gave his much-anticipated budget address today. Not really sure why it was so anticipated, since it was just a rehash of all the horseshit he's been saying all along. Seriously, he didn't even have to be there. I could've given it by now.


Mike Huckabee goes birther. Not to be outdone in the headlines department, Newt Gingrich announces his candidacy for president.


A government shutdown is averted, but that doesn't mean there won't be a fight.


Being a Vuvuzela in the Conservative Noise Machine 101: if you don't like poll results, attack the sampling method. Nobody understands that stuff anyway, so you don't have to be right.


Christian fundamentalist leader is a perv. *yawn* So what else is new?


Finally, Republican congresscritter and teabagging lunatic Allen West hates on Abe Lincoln.