@mmfa "So vote Republican. We'll make sure you don't have a choice OR a job!"
— billmon (@billmon1) September 20, 2013
Dealing with Rep. Pete “Mucker” King is like living with a rescue pit bull — it ain’t for amateurs, or philosopher-kings. TPM is happy to point out that Ted “Tailgunner” Cruz doesn’t seem to be up to the job:
In a day marked by the clash between House Republicans and Sen. Ted Cruz over defunding Obamacare, Rep. Pete King (R-NY) had another message for the Texas senator: Mind your own business.
“We as House Republicans should stop letting Ted Cruz set our agenda for us,” King said on CNN. “He should stay in the Senate, keep quiet. If he can deliver on this, fine. If he can’t, he should keep quiet from now on and we shouldn’t listen to him.”…
Remember, Pete “Not the Cantalope Guy” King is officially running for President in 2016, as a vanity project to raise his Q ratings. So if Cruz blows up the whole economy in his own quest for a bigger share of the GOP grift, it’s going to be a gross personal inconvenience to Peter King, which is the best and perhaps only way to get a Repub’s attention…
Elsewhere, a House GOP aide told National Review Online that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi “is more well-liked” than Cruz.
Buuuuuurrrn!
billgerat
Ted Cruz is Jim Jones asking all the GOP to come and drink the kool-aid.
Cermet
I will be hurt directly by any shut down it would appear that little else could give a wake up call to the old farts voting for these thugs; these old ass wipes may finally realize that the thugs are not just gonna hurt Nig – clang but their bank account.
TS
@Cermet:
Doubtful – Obama’s fault – the GOP are already blaming the President and the media sure aren’t going to correct those remarks.
OzarkHillbilly
Posted by Argon over at OTB:
Brave Sir Robin ran away.
Bravely ran away away.
When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly he chickened out…
Thlayli
That’s Peter “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” King. Yet another beneficiary of this region’s odd habit of voting for obnoxious pricks (Giuliani, Spitzer, Schumer, Christie, &c.)
Amir Khalid
After years of following comment threads on American political blogs, I was under the impression that the Republicans were endowed with a fearsome Borg-like party discipline, while the Democrats were a well-intentioned but easily spooked rabble.
Well, now.
Viva BrisVegas
I’ve heard that a woman’s work is never done, but that’s taking multitasking a bit too far.
Comrade Jake
Sully had a post up last night that suggested the GOP will be perfectly happy if all of this simply results in Obama agreeing to the Keystone pipeline and a number of other pet projects. What a friggin joke.
amk
ted cruz is the new jim demented.
MattF
This would all be more entertaining if it was a SpongeBob cartoon. But it seems to be actual reality. I do appreciate all the Reps telling Cruz to go perform an unnatural act on a nearby orifice, though.
Ben Cisco
@Cermet: Interesting theory; however, they have shown not one ounce of situational awareness to this point; indeed, they seem willing to rather severely harm themselves so long as they can blame you-know-who for it. I’m beginning to fear that they would literally eat dirt just to “take are country back.”
Of course, that’s the cynic in me. I’d rather think that your point is valid.
WereBear
Announcing Fund Drive Time at the Way of Cats:
I got you a fun slidey thing!
ChipIn is no more. So, as an incentive, every time someone donates, I bump up that thermometer by hand.
Sure, I’m not out there with a brush and a bucket of paint, but this is the digital age.
Linda Featheringill
@Amir Khalid:
The Republicans used to be more cohesive. There is the old saying that Democrats fall in love with a candidate and Republicans fall in line. And so it was.
The current Republican washing of dirty laundry in public is rather new, I think.
Punchy
@TS: I’m sure Todd Chuck will help evaluate the claims and call bullshit. After all, not everything’s a longjohn or cruller, and the jelly-filled ones have their own catagory
rk
Actually I like my free abortions while I’m waiting tables. I consider it my tip.
cvstoner
Yes, Repubs, please stop listening to Cruz. We need you to bring your totally batshit craziness to a head so we can deal with it while we still have some time to keep the world from burning.
So please. Keep the crazy coming.
MomSense
Well if only we weren’t saddled with all of the Entitlements everything would be fine and dandy and we could afford to educate people and do all kinds of things according to Morning Ho who has been talking about this with Erskine.
WereBear
Good one!
Not that Dems have steely resolve all of a sudden so much that the Republican’s inner tendency to act like Mike the Headless Chicken have been revealed.
That’s what the discipline has been all about. Keeping Mike under wraps.
cvstoner
@Ben Cisco:
Actually, they want the rest of us to eat dirt just to take the country back.
geg6
@WereBear:
Heh. Mike FTW.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ben Cisco:
Somebody needs to tell them they can’t have it back. The Koch brothers aren’t selling.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: I think the crazy on the Right has always been there. I used to read the platform resolutions that were promulgated by the Texas Republican party just for fun– they were always nuts, and they were never widely reported because none of their proposals ever got past the Texas borders.
But the crazy Right, which is crazy but not stupid, has now gotten real political power– and we’re seeing the consequences. I suspect that there’s also a counter-story about what’s happening with the Dems, but that’s less clear.
Joseph Nobles
In order to follow my Texas representatives on Facebook without liking them, I’ve added them to an interest list. Ted Cruz had the gall to blame the impending government shutdown on the President because of the veto threat he issued. Well, now Tom Delay’s gotten acquitted, so maybe he’ll give Cruz a run for his money in four years. How depressing.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@cvstoner: That too.
@OzarkHillbilly: Also, that.
debbie
@amk:
No,he’s the reincarnation of Joseph McCarthy.
debbie
@Linda Featheringill:
And now the current saying is: Lay down with ravening dogs, and you’re bound to wake up feeling like a chew toy.
raven
How about a lecture behind COLBERT TWERKING!!!!!! I shall feint.
raven
@debbie: You got a problem with my dogs?
OzarkHillbilly
@raven:
We’ve all got problems with your dawgs…. Especially that one named Broun
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Ding!
nineone
Good Gawd, Y’all! Is that Obama one lucky (magic) Nee-grow, or what? It’s like shit just *happens*. I suppose that’s why the GOP keeps trying to conjure one of their own. How’s that workin’ out for ’em?
Oh well, there’s always Palin, also too. Heh.
debbie
@raven:
I had to look Broun up. I can’t believe there’s someone worse than Chambliss.
WereBear
Of course it doesn’t. It’s just been soooooooooo looooooooong since we’ve had a smart person doing smart things.
His whole childhood, my father ate my grandmother’s cooking. This was a farm, they didn’t get electricity until he was twelve; as he said, “I never knew toast wasn’t black until I got out on my own.”
Government can run well. It’s just that we always have one party who is determined to ruin it.
OzarkHillbilly
South Africa police lied to us, says Marikana massacre inquiry
I could not help but contrast this with the results of our inquiry into the Bush/Cheney torture program.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Just when you thought Georgia could sink no lower…
tybee
@OzarkHillbilly:
i dunno about the ability to not sink even lower. some of us still remember lester maddox.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Rumor has it that certain elements threatened a coup d’état if anyone looked into W era war crimes. An element which controls Blackwater.
If so, would it change your opinion?
mai naem
Tangentially related to Pete King – the Colorado Republican Reps who were against Sandy relief have their hand out for flood relief in Colorado.Hypocrisy – it just never stops with the Republicans.
WereBear
@mai naem: This is where Democrats have to get WITH IT. They have to hammer back on this kind of thing; people understand it.
So what if they don’t get on the MSM any more? It’s not like they are saying anything useful there anyway!
By saying it and keeping saying it, the word will get out… and then the MSM will be the ones looking censor-y for NOT covering it.
Palladium
Just need to clarify something, AL: did you really just make a joke about how dangerous rescue pit bulls can be, on this blog, of all places?
Really?
TAPX486
I think it’s time to allow the shutdown to occur. I realize it will cause real pain to real people but maybe that’s the only way to get the attention of the public at large. As a 3 year old I was told repeatedly that the lights on the Christmas tree were hot. But did I listen. Nope, not till I burned my little fingers. I think we are at the burn the fingers moment.
The sequester is not getting peoples attention. It is to spread out among to many groups that have very little power or voice. Who cares if the folks in the Air Forced can’t get needed flu shots (other than the folks who can’t get the flu shots). The VSP in Washington get their flu shot so that’s all that matters. Of course when the FAA shutdown affected the VSP’s, things were fixed immediately.
Many of the agencies have made cuts by deferring maintenance or other tactic’s that simply pushes off the day of reckoning. You can delay fixing the roof only so long before the rain starts to flood the kitchen.
Nothing will convince the tea party and the retrograde right wing but maybe there are enough Republicans in blue and purple states that can be voted out of office and replaced with those much maligned but sorely missed blue dog democrats For that to happen the voters have to really see what is happening, that it does affect them, even if only indirectly (my medical plan pays for my flu shot but I want the Air Force folks to have theirs as well).
Forty-three percent of the public thinks that defaulting on the debt is no big deal. Maybe if they see what happens during the far less serious government shutdown they will start to listen and then demand that their congress critter start acting like an adult.. What I’m afraid of is we will avert the shut down/debt limit for 3 months and then start all over again in December, to be followed by another three month delay. Eventually someone is going to miscalculate and we will default on the debt. The current situation in Washington would embarrass a 4th rate banana republic.
nineone
@WereBear:
I guess it’s a good thing they’re on the way out, huh? How’s that happening anyway? Oh yeah, dumb luck or something like that.
As the kids today say – evs.
Tone in DC
@tybee:
Now THAT… that’s pretty damn low.
Lawrence
I’m picturing the three way standoff from The Good The Bad and The Ugly only with Boehner, Cruz, and King.
kindness
I really do enjoy watching Republicans carry out a circular firing squad except the rest of us still have to live with the ramifications of children trashing our Credit Rating and fucking up our schools.
WereBear
@Lawrence: The movie would fall. The Bad, the Bad, and The Really Bad is not an appealing title.
Gus
Wait a minute. I thought our big problem as a country was wimmins is takin’ all the jobs.
Lawrence
@WereBear: I’m actually hoping it ends up like Reservoir Dogs.
Epicurus
Hell, a rampant case of athlete’s foot is more popular than Tailgunner Cruz. I do hope he meets the same fate as his namesake; drunk and out of office.
J R in WV
Rick Santorum is more popular that Cruz, and he can’t count past 10 with his shoes on!
Tod Kelly
Minor quibble, but I think you’re getting your Bat-Shit-Crazy-Congresscritters-Named-King’s mixed up. The cantaloupe guy is Steve King.
Not that getting them confused isn’t pretty understandable.
Villago Delenda Est
@MomSense:
Well, he’s right, in a sense.
The greatest Entitlement program in the United States is vile swine like the Kochs and the Waltons inheriting billions. Eliminate that Entitlement program, put that wealth to use, and all the other problems become non-problems.
WereBear
@Lawrence: Now that… (sits down, fans self) now that I’d pay Manhattan ticket prices for!
Ruckus
@TAPX486:
The current situation in Washington would embarrass a 4th rate banana republic.
Do you think a 4th rate banana republic would allow anything like this to happen in the first place? You would see walls with blood stained bullet holes all over town. And no blindfolds.
gene108
@WereBear:
I think it has as much to do with Republicans actively courting the crazies. I’ve met some very, very conservative people, who voted for Carter in 1976, but after 1980 they became loyal Republicans.
Republicans knew peeling off these voters was the key to their success and they kept after them, with a vengeance.
So much so that all these guys are concentrated in the Republican Party and as it turns out there isn’t anyone else there to tell these nuts ‘no’ anymore.
Bush, Sr. passed cap-and-trade legislation* to combat acid rain and I believe signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law. Heck, Reagan salvaged Social Security and made it solvent for a really long time, after his initial attempt to dismantle it failed, i.e. he compromised.
Even Bush, Jr.’s biggest domestic accomplishment were “triangulating” liberal goals, like expanding education funding and expanding Medicare, and he even signed some form of campaign finance reform into law, along with Sarbanes-Oxley to put some regulations on big business.
I think the catastrophic failure of Bush & Co.’s misrule, along with the deep seated belief by the VSP’s on the Right that conservatism cannot fail, has driven any attempt at rational governance out of the Republican Party and turned it into some kind of death cult that wants to see how much damage they can do before everyone dies.
*We sometimes sneer at conservative alternatives to liberal proposals, but cap and trade was a conservative idea to use free market mechanisms to regulate sulfuric acid and nitrous oxide emissions that caused acid rain, as opposed to more top-down “big government” regulations and for the most part it has worked. In short, when conservatives try to get serious about actually solving problems, rather than enriching friends and cronies, they do sometimes come up with good ideas.
MomSense
@Villago Delenda Est:
I wish he were talking about those entitlements but instead he was talking about social security and medicare and apparently missed the news that the rate of spending growth is less than the rate of inflation for the first time in 50 years.
He is just a superficial jerk.