Having just wrenched the nation in an utterly pointless two-week shutdown at cost of tens of billions and 800,000 furloughed workers and an unhealthy slice of GDP, there's something about House Republicans instantly slithering to a condemnation of the Obama administration for its lack of "accountability" on the healthcare rollout that puts one in therapeutic need of Obamacare-covered anger management.
They truly have no shame. That's far from unique in politics, but somehow Republicans have crafted an institutional model of shamelessness that's capable of forever astonishing even the most jaded observer. They ... keep ... hitting ... new ... lows.
Of course HHS Secretary Sebelius was already scheduled to meet next week with the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which itself is a micromodel of unaccountable inanity. Just a few of its membership names--Texas' Joe Barton and Michael Burgess, Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn--are evidence enough that the evangelical battle against the Age of Enlightenment marches on, with its army of humbuggers armored in the safety of scarlet districts.
That Sebelius meeting, however, isn't enough. Because the White House is meeting today with House Dems, the GOP leadership cries "snub." The poor dears. But perhaps they were only mourning their lost opportunity to explain to the WH why they just dragged us all to the edge of destruction. Yes, that must be it, seeing how they're so bullish on accountability.
Or maybe House Republicans only wish to correct this nagging curiosity--as noted by Dana Milbank this morning--in their aggrieved indignation over Obamacare's technical flaws:
Their outrage has not been softened by the knowledge that the bulk of the sign-up problems has been in the states led by critics of the law who refused to cooperate with the federal government on the rollout. Essentially, Republicans are complaining about flaws created in part by their own sabotage.
They've now two paths before them. Actual, cooperative governance, or, Obamagazi! Gee I can hardly wait to see which they choose.