Ezra Klein meditates on what he headlines as "The GOP’s dangerous debt-ceiling gamble," in which his use of the word "dangerous" is, to be sure, quite apt, but "gamble" is a misnomer. Because the GOP's hand is a sure loser.
As Klein notes, "many Hill Republicans" believe that threatening to stiff America's creditors and slam shut the government's doors and wreck the recovery and detonate a world financial collapse will "[give] them leverage" on renewed budget negotiations and reduce the president to a frightened, whimpering supplicant. You know, a bit like all that American firepower intimidated the North Vietnamese into begging for a deal, any deal--please, just please stop the pounding.
You may take all day, and I'll even give you the night as well, to conceive a worse, a dumber, a more mind-bendingly idiotic strategy to negotiate a 2013 budget victory over the White House--and I'll bet you can't do it. You can't, because there simply ain't nothin' more cretinous than what Klein accurately foreshadows as the GOP's imminent ploy.
Which is why, assuming there's something left of a GOP leadership structure by February or March, I'd wager the ploy will never see winter's twilight. For the moment it's a psychological face-saver--oh man, you wait, you just wait, Mr. President, yeah, you'll get yours--but when the time comes its breathtaking stupidity will be too self-evident, even to many Hill Republicans. Because it's no gamble. It's a sure loser.
They apparently are unable to see that Obama is taking a totally different approach this time around. Plus, they have conveniently forgotten that in almost every negotiation with him, they have gotten the short end of the stick.
Because there is a miniscule chance their tactic might work, I guess the word "gamble" can still be invoked. However, their perception of Obama as weak is about to be shattered on the rocks of reality.
Not that he ever has been weak, but they just can't believe they are being outmanuevered by a Democrat, and a black one at that.
Posted by: japa21 | December 12, 2012 at 01:09 PM
I wish I could be as confident as you. But is there anything left of a GOP leadership structure today? Do the breathtakingly stupid Hill Republicans sound or act like they have any sense of logic or self-preservation? If I were in the West Wing, I'd be working on a plan to deal with the next debt ceiling crisis right now.
Posted by: mdblanche | December 12, 2012 at 02:10 PM
The only thing that stands in the way of Democratic domination of the Republican caucus is the Democrats themselves. I'm pretty confident Obama will stand strong. I'm not yet convinced that a small number of Democrats won't sabotage Obama's strategy either through cowardice or a misguided desire to appear more bi-partisan.
Posted by: Chris Andersen | December 13, 2012 at 10:42 AM