Bring 'em on

We don't, but procurer John Boehner will deserve every excruciating moment of the hydra-headed clusterfuck he's about to suffer. The upside for us, however, is that consequent voter backlash should arrive in a 2012 torrent that'll make this year's seem like a drizzle. 

Politico previews the wicked fun: Rep. Steve "King and allies such as [Michele] Bachmann will push their leadership into what could be an uncomfortable confrontation with the White House, specifically on health care, threatening government shutdown if they don’t get their way."

And then there are the now-inevitable newcomers: "Many of these candidates are people who are new to public life," said Republican Congressman Peter Roskam. "So they will have an expectation of 'I said this in the campaign, and I’m going to do this in Congress.' "

Boehner, Cantor & Co. has had a high old time of it egging on tea-party challengers and whipping up mass ill will toward all things Obamian. But today's cranky public sentiment will morph into stupendous outrage once the GOP's promised realities set in: the House's (attempted) re-unleashing of health-insurance companies to summarily deny coverage or cancel policies; the House's cruel interruption of extended unemployment benefits; the House's idiotic contraction of government spending in a depressed, demandless economy; a ghastly government shutdown in which Treasury can't cut Social Security checks and Medicare can't process Medicare claims (hello, all you older, angry white voters); and so bloody on.

Boehner already foresees that his choices will be those of Hobson's. Even his passably moderate House members who appreciate the immense stupidity of tea-party ideology will also espy a troubled 2012 primary, should they make any attempts at rational governance -- at moving the country forward. The House GOP will, therefore, collapse under the obesity of its own counterproductive fraudulence. 

That Boehner has made a Faustian bargain is perhaps the stuff of conspicuity and doubtlessly harmful to sound governance, but it sure will be fun to watch him and his party over the next two years go up in flames.

Comments

[Tennessee Catfish]

I have been telling my friends for four years that both parties would be in civil wars for a while.

P.M. has suffered greatly at the hands of some far left ideologues. But I submit that our civil war really wasn't a war at all. There has been hardly any attaccks on Blue Dogs as compared to the attacks of Republican incumbents by the titular Tea Party and the Club For Growth crowd.

We far left progressive got fussy and a little antimated about not getting the public option, and never really expected to get single payer. On corresponding issues for thee right, there is no equivalent moderation. Rather they seem to be in the throes of their own Inquisition.

I thought American had seen sure movement conservatism in the Bush administration, but we apparently wrote that off as one bumbling president. The beast will soon be unchained.

It will not be pleasant or pretty. But it will be very interesting. Maybe we will have the public conversation about governance we have been postponing for 30 years. Regardless of what else I might think about the titular Tea Party, at least they are candid and fairly honest.

[Anne Johnson]

WEll after the slaughter of 2008, everyone said that the republicans would have to do some soul-searching and possibly come out more moderate. And what was the result? A right wing tea party that has radicalized the republican party more than ever. And now they seem poised to at least take over the house if not the senate. I'm no fan of John Boehner. I see him as the fat-cat country club three martini lunch, congressman who would rather golf than work and because of his government checks he can. But he can't be so dumb to think of what the consequences will be to the country and his party if a new and more radicalized republican party takes the house shutting down government and cutting off any and all aid when it is needed more than ever. I do know that republicans are more about short term victories than long term governing, but would John Boehner be so blinded by hubris that it would make him that short-sighted? Due to my serious health problems and unemployment I am now more dependent on government than I ever wanted to be. I can only hope that I will survive long enough to see the outcome in 2012.

[Marc McKenzie]

@Tennessee Catfish: Well said. It's sad, really that even after the mess of the Bush years (which were thrown into Obama's lap and for which HE is now blamed) that many will vote to return to those policies. Sadly, it seems that some on the far left are so disgusted at Obama that they would allow this to happen to "teach a lesson". Not that anyone seems to have learned it since '68.

@Anne Johnson: I'm sorry to read about your predicament, but the best anyone can do now is hope for the best. If anything, by 2012, hopefully enough eyes and minds will be opened to the fact that the Republicans simply _cannot_ govern, and have not been able to for 30 years.

[Ren]

"The House GOP will, therefore, collapse under the obesity of its own counterproductive fraudulence."

Sadly...no they won't. They will blame Obama for the misery they unleash. The only question is how many voters in 2012 will swallow that meme and judging by the mid-terms, it ain't lookin' good.