For Republicans, something's gotta give. And to avoid another shutdown fiasco, it's gotta give before December 11. Politico:
The [House] leadership would like to craft two bills to fund the government: one that would keep most of the government open through September 2015, and another that would fund immigration enforcement agencies through the first few months of the year....
GOP hard-liners have ideas of their own. Some have floated censuring Obama or canceling his State of the Union address, although neither will happen, senior aides say.
Those are, to be sure, comically feeble alternatives from the hard-liners' camp. A censure would be but another monumental asterisk to movement conservatism's chronic eccentricity and canceling the SOTU address would only save Obama the trouble of outlining all the intelligent legislation that will never pass Congress. The hard-liners' alternatives acquire a negative strength, however, on the basis of the leadership's bills not happening either, if Democrats rally cohesively and deny Boehner their support in pushing the funding bills through.
Simply put, Democrats should make Republicans prove they can govern--on their own, just as they've always wanted it, no bipartisanship need apply. In the House they already harbor a comfortable majority, which will swell to a sizable majority in the next Congress. They have sworn to voters that as unified body they can govern, and now--on the eve of yet another preposterous shutdown--is the time to prove it.
Are House Republicans capable of passing a rather straightforward funding bill without Democratic votes? Doubtful. Should the responsibility of passing a funding bill be Republicans' alone? Absolutely. Will Democrats force that singular responsibility onto the GOP? We're back to doubtful. Very doubtful.
A CNN/ORC poll released this morning reveals that "Half of the public says that Republican control of Congress will be bad for the country and cause more gridlock." The same percentage says it would blame Republicans for a shutdown. (Only 33 percent would blame Obama.) In Juan Williams' Hill column today, he comments that "After losses in the midterms, the Democrats have concluded that it is time for them to go on offense." This--denying Boehner the support he desperately needs in order to avert the public's pessimistic expectations--is Democrats' best offensive play. But odds are, they'll blow it.