"After the GOP cave many worried that this whole thing is going to happen again in January. I wasn't so pessimistic because I just don't see how the GOP leadership can want to go through this again. It helps to understand that they didn't want this the first time, that it kind of happened 'by accident'-they had only intended to appease their Tea Party members without really falling off the ledge."
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/10/so-will-there-be-government-shtudown-30.html
Now Mitch McConnell is guaranteeing it won't happen again in speaking with wealthy GOP donors who were really frustrated by the recent absurdity.
"Mitch McConnell isn’t going to have another government shutdown on his watch. The Kentucky Republican stood up over the weekend and said he wanted to address the “elephant in the room” at a fundraising retreat in Sea Island, Ga. Speaking before roughly 300 K Streeters and big donors, McConnell said Republicans will not come close to defaulting on the nation’s debts or shutting down the government early next year when stop-gap government funding and the debt ceiling are slated to be voted on again."
"He’s in fighting mode,” said one attendee of McConnell. “He didn’t get into specifics about what they are doing and how they are going to do it, but McConnell and (Texas Sen. John) Cornyn were particularly forceful.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/mitch-mcconnell-government-shutdown-98943.html#ixzz2j49USkNK
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/10/so-will-there-be-government-shtudown-30.html
Now Mitch McConnell is guaranteeing it won't happen again in speaking with wealthy GOP donors who were really frustrated by the recent absurdity.
"Mitch McConnell isn’t going to have another government shutdown on his watch. The Kentucky Republican stood up over the weekend and said he wanted to address the “elephant in the room” at a fundraising retreat in Sea Island, Ga. Speaking before roughly 300 K Streeters and big donors, McConnell said Republicans will not come close to defaulting on the nation’s debts or shutting down the government early next year when stop-gap government funding and the debt ceiling are slated to be voted on again."
"His remarks echoed similar comments he made following the shutdown that it was “not conservative policy” and that he always believed “this strategy could not and would not work.”
"He’s in fighting mode,” said one attendee of McConnell. “He didn’t get into specifics about what they are doing and how they are going to do it, but McConnell and (Texas Sen. John) Cornyn were particularly forceful.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/mitch-mcconnell-government-shutdown-98943.html#ixzz2j49USkNK
While many have argued that McConnell is worried about his Tea Party challenger in Kentucky and therefore doesn't want to rock the boat-and this was kind of how he acted during the fight-he has now clearly set himself up as a pragmatic and reasonable honest broker who can work with Democrats and definitely won't be privy to or tolerate any more wild Kamikaze missions. He's looking much more to his Democratic challenger, Allison Grimes.
Assuming they won't go down this road again as McConnell promises-and again I don't expect them to go down it again-will the be ready for fully normal governing? I wouldn't count on it, this is the Republican party we're talking about. As Greg Sargent points out, the only tangible reform the GOP was discussing after the lost election in 2012 was immigration reform and now you even have Mario Rubio inveighing against the Senate immigration bill-and he's a Republican.
"All this comes down to a fundamental question: Do Republicans think they need to prove the party can enter into the normal give and take of governing, or don’t they? Maybe the answer is No, because their majority is supposedly invulnerable. If so, there won’t be a budget deal or immigration reform; we’ll keep lurching from one crisis to the next; and we’ll find out what it really means politically in November of 2014.
"All this comes down to a fundamental question: Do Republicans think they need to prove the party can enter into the normal give and take of governing, or don’t they? Maybe the answer is No, because their majority is supposedly invulnerable. If so, there won’t be a budget deal or immigration reform; we’ll keep lurching from one crisis to the next; and we’ll find out what it really means politically in November of 2014.
But if the answer is Yes, that would require acceptance of a basic fact: There is probably nothing that could result from normal governing compromises between Republicans and Democrats that the Tea Party wing can ever accept."
As I said, I don't think they'll let the Tea party go full shutdown mode again. If they're actually ready for governing again, well let's not get carried away.
Well, they better learn from past mistake.
ReplyDeleteYou would think so but this is the GOP we're talking about after all.
Delete