Any Case For Republican Governance Has Collapsed

++Unless you have a Republican friend or family member running for office,there is virtually no reason to vote Republican. This was a stunning day--two days away from default--when the House GOP could not formulate a bill, even a vindictive one, or muster enough votes for any thing. There is a total collapse of House Republicans and there dysfunction is beyond anything I have ever seen in my lifetime. 

++Earlier in the day Mitch McConnell suspended the negotiations with Harry Reid to see what the House would produce. Throughout the day, we were told various options were being considered by the House, including the Vitter amendment, which would strip the President, the Vice President,cabinet members and congressional staff of their federal health insurance. This has actually been on the table for the last week, first in a Republican version of the Senate bill and now in the House. The meme of "fairness for all Americans" is meant to be code for this amendment. The Einsteins in the House who thought this was school kid clever--Teehee--never considered it was unconstitutional. God knows whether it would resurface in something tomorrow. Their latest bill did not please the tea baggers so Heritage Action vowed revenge and Boehner said there would be no bill tonight. Peter King of New York, who is not a moderate as advertised but conservative,cried out loud that "My party is going nuts." By evening,Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell were backed negotiating. House staffers wailed that they would have to accept the Senate bill or the bill from the "Surrender Caucus". Peter King said that for all this talk over the last two weeks about Obamacare,the House bill didn't even touch it and all they got was misery and woe for the American people.

++Tomorrow, President Obama has called Jack Lew to the White House for a meeting, including Joe Biden. Rick Hertzberg wrote a compelling case in the New York why President Obama has to invoke the 14th Amendment to allow Treasury to pay America's debts. As Bruce Bartlett, the adviser to Reagan and Poppie Bush, told Thom Hartman this morning he hoped President Obama didn't cave on this. He said there is no economic problem, this is a political problem that you would have to go back to the Civil War to see it replicated.

++But the sabotage of the American economy has already occurred. The short-term bond market has flipped out and large Hedge Funds have been liquidating their short-term debt already. China has called for the "De-Americanization" of the global order. The global community can not trust the United States anymore. While the NSA revelations shock the confidence of our allies,the whimsical default on the American debt by a handful of short, white freaks is just too much. Already,the idea of creating another global currency is surfacing from more mainstream countries and not simply as a proposal from radical states. Those who cry,"U.S.A!, U.S.A!", will have unilaterally diminished America's influence and power in the world, nothing a $1trillion Defense, intelligence and Homeland Security budget can ever bring back. Incredibly over 50% of Republicans actually believe defaulting on the debt is no big deal. But, remember these are the same people who argued that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to us,that international organizations are against our interest ad who believed we could act unilaterally in the world. So,they will be flabbergasted by the backlash against the United States and try to gin up some jingoistic response for 2016. They will try and blame Obama for the shrinking influence in the world the United States will have. But don't be fooled.

++The implosion of a major party in the Western world creates serious collateral damage both here and abroad. Progressives thought there was some kind of alliance with libertarians to stop the Syrian War. But the GOP response was old-fashioned isolationism. Their empire has collapsed and they want to bring the country further down. Note the Syrian bill that had passed the House only months before as token pressure on Obama to engage more fully in the Syrian situation. It was close to a declaration of war signed by the House GOP. But when push came to shove, they fled authorization of military action. I'm glad Obama didn't move militarily but the GOP's actions were not only knee-jerk anti-Obama but a refection of their new isolationism. The remnants of neo-conservatism are helpless before this new tide. Notice what little impact Bibi Netanyahu's visit to the States made or how ineffectual were the 250 AIPAC lobbyists on the Syrian Resolution. The GOP has no strategy for foreign policy at all.

++Karl Rove has said that the GOP depended on their strength in national security and on their tax policies. They lost both in the 2012 election and now they do not have any foreign policy credibility or any economic policies, which could improve the lot of their fellow Americans. In fact, they have even abandoned their business donors, who are now terrified at the Republican Party. They created the Teabag Monster and now it is devouring the Party.

++Ed Kilgore of the Washington Monthly took on Michael Lind's thesis that what we are seeing is that the South has taken over the Republican Party and that the current situation is the inevitable conclusion of the South triumph as witnessed by the Confederate flags at yesterday's rallies. Lind made a persuasive case about this but Kilgore takes him down a notch. Pat Buchanan is dancing in the streets over the Teabag sedition, saying it is reminiscent of Barry Goldwater taking on the Rockefeller establishment. I guess Bruce Bartlett got in the final word on this when he told Thom Hartman that the GOP should be encouraged to run the craziest candidate in 2016 so that they can lose in all 50 states and maybe something could rise from the ashes.

++I like political practitioners. I always have appreciated Nancy Pelosi mastering a very simple task--always knowing the exact vote count when a bill was brought up on the floor. The GOP can't even get that straight. During the last two years, the House GOP has never had an accurate Whip count, even on such a crucial thing for the GOP base as the Farm Bill.If they can't even manage to Whip their own bills, why would anyone entrust them with managing anything in government.

++Steve Israel today sent viral a clip of the Rules Committee changing the rule that would allowed the shutdown to happen. In other words,Republicans were caught ensuring that the shutdown would happen and that no clean C/R could ever be brought to the floor. But what was worse is today when they were not getting their way, the Teabaggers objected to the rule. The problem for the rest of us is that it may mean that the Senate agreement may not even make it to the floor.

++We witnessed today an amazing threat. Senator Rafael Cruz threatened to filibuster any bill to raise the debt ceiling on the floor of the Senate. Yesterday, we saw Paul Ryan, master of the budget, threaten to attach an amendment to the debt ceiling that would prohibit insurance companies for covering contraceptives for women. And not to be outdone, Rand Paul threatened to attach an amendment to the Senate bill to raise retirement age for Social Security and for Medicare eligibility. 

++Basically the Religious Right wing of the GOP is anti-American unless we adopt their rules. The GOP's foreign policy is now isolationist but still making unilateral demands that the world ignores. For example,Iran is supposed to cease all uranium enrichment before sanctions are lifted. This conveniently ignores that Iran is a signatory of the non-proliferation act, which allows enrichment for energy purposes. The demand will be laughed out of the EU and by other countries with sanctions on Iran. On Syria, the GOP is absolutely silent on Syria's compliance with its pledge to destroy its chemical weapons. A major interest of the GOP in the past is simply not considered important. And because of the impression of the Congressional disarray abroad,Russia is charging we are not living up to our obligations to bring the Syrian opposition to the table in Geneva. There is an eerie feeling that the United States is not reliable in anything.

++Foreign observers are dumbstruck by our government shutdown. They basically think it is strange that any country would shutdown in protest against a healthcare law that was already approved over four years ago. It is baffling. The perception of a possible default is fear. They never believed it before but now they see a whole section of our society as not taking this prospect seriously. Simply put, we are not a serious country.

++I'm not clear I know what the GOP stands for anymore. We all know what they stand against. Contraceptives,gay rights,equal rights, affirmative action,health care, social security, Medicare,Hispanics,women in general,veterans issues,labor rights,the environment,government disaster aid,gun control, and you add to the list. They are for the government shutdown,for default, for military monuments,and they don't even seem to be for "family values". It is stunning to see the total collapse of a major party, just as polls show finally the American people have returned to the belief that government plays a vital role in our society and our prosperity.