News Nuggets 1315

DAYLEE PICTURE: A red squirrel in Cairngorms National Park in Scotland.  

From the Daily Mail of the UK.

The Kurtz Republicans (Ross Douthat) from the New York Times
"...  there is still something well-nigh-unprecedented about how Republicans have conducted themselves of late. It’s not the scale of their mistake, or the kind of damage that it’s caused, but the fact that their strategy was such self-evident folly, so transparently devoid of any method whatsoever. Every sensible person, most Republican politicians included, could recognize that the shutdown fever would blow up in the party’s face. ... It’s clear, right now, that the populists can’t be trusted not to drive their party into a ditch."

Tea Partiers React With Fury To World They Can’t Control (Cynthia Tucker) from the National Memo
"If anything has been surprising, it’s been the potency of their hatred, the irrationality of their tactics, the venom in their backlash. But, as they see it, they are fighting for their way of life — their control, their power. This is an existential battle, and they’re willing to burn down the country to save it from people of color. That’s why they’re willing to risk defaulting on the nation’s debt for the first time in history."

The Inevitable Republican Collapse That Will End the Shutdown (Noam Scheiber) from the New Republic
"The grim, angry, loopy, and predetermined conclusion to Washington's crisis. ...  Boehner will reprise the same formula he deployed in resolving last year’s fiscal cliff fight. I know this because it’s how the GOP has gotten out of pretty much every self-inflicted PR disaster of the Obama era, and it’s where the best reporting available suggests we’re headed today."

Democrats vs. Republicans vs. Tea Partiers (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"... Democrats, Republicans, and the tea party. The struggle between two parties is overlaid on top of a struggle for control within one of the parties. Compounding matters is that the terms of the internal struggle between the Republican Party and its ultraright party-within-a-party are themselves almost completely irrational. ... The tea partiers have demanded the party charge into a shoot-out it can’t win. But the respectable mainstream Republicans, the Paul Ryans and Charles Krauthammers, have urged it to stage a nuclear confrontation it can’t win."

Shutdown Politics: Support for Democratic Takeover of House Spikes (John Nichols) from the Nation
"Those poll numbers explain why there has been at least some movement on the part of House Republicans—who engineered the shutdown as part of a scheme to derail implementation of the Affordable Care Act—to back down from their most hardline positions. The latest data from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal is devastating for the GOP"

Truckers Ride For The Constitution Failing To Beat Out Everyday Beltway Headaches So Far from the Huffington Post
"As of midday Friday, a much-anticipated protest spearheaded by a group of tea party truck drivers appears to be causing minimal disruptions. The Washington Post reports that the "Truckers Ride For The Constitution" added little fanfare to traffic on the Capital Beltway."

The Shutdown is a Total Disaster for the GOP (Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas) from the Washington Post
"It's hard to overstate the magnitude of the GOP's strategic failure here: Obamacare's launch has been awful. More than a week after the federal insurance marketplaces opened, most people can't purchase insurance on the first try. But Republicans have chosen such a wildly unpopular strategy to oppose it that they've helped both Obamacare and its author in the polls."

Depths of Irresponsibility: GOP on the Debt Limit (Jonathan Bernstein) from the Washington Post
"Republicans do seem to be getting ready to surrender (although they seem to have only reached the stage at which they’re asking for rewards for surrendering; it may take a while longer for them to fully understand the concept). A true economic disaster may yet be avoided. But everyone should remember just how irresponsible they’ve been on this one."

Will the Kamikaze Caucus Doom the GOP? (Ronald Brownstein) from the National Journal
"The frenzied push from House Republicans to derail Obamacare, shelve immigration reform, and slash food stamps all point toward a steadily escalating confrontation between a Republican coalition revolving around older whites and a Democratic coalition anchored on the burgeoning population of younger nonwhites."

The Tea Party Is Damaging Its Credibility in the Way It Can Least Afford (Conor Friedersdorf) from the Atlantic
"Tea Partiers should nevertheless understand that, fairly or unfairly, they're saddled with a reputation for unusual recklessness. Voters aren't sure whether they can be trusted to govern. That's why their behavior in the debt-ceiling standoff is so idiotic."

The Republican Fever Is Down. It Hasn't Broken Yet (Jonathan Cohn) from the New Republic
"...it’s clear Senate Republicans are desperate to get past this episode. It's also clear why. ... His message on this has been consistent and it has been right. The Republicans can get concessions on all kinds of things—entitlements, taxes, even Obamacare. But they can’t get more concessions by threatening to wreak economic havoc. Until Republicans accept that, prospects for agreement seem slim."

Cruzification of the GOP (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post 
"At least so far, the standoff has been a political bloodbath for Republicans. And maybe that’s exactly what was needed to right the political system: The effort to gut Obamacare had to crash like this so that Republican leaders and lawmakers would find the courage to stand up to tea party toughs ..."

At the Values Voter Summit, It’s YOLO Conservatism (Jamelle Bouie) from the Daily Beast
"It was pure, unbridled, conservative id. And it was celebrated. Moreover, as we’re seeing now, no one in the mainstream of the Republican Party is going to challenge it. Indeed, it’s hard to think anyone will even try to co-op it."

Nice Civil War You Have Going There! (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos 
"The ranting and raging over at Breitbart.com is put on full display here!! "... when the primaries happen the GOP Establishment will be destroyed....I cannot wait to vote and I will be sending money to candidates all over the US that Challenge Incumbent GOP Senators and Congressmen. I want Boehner gone, Cantor gone, Ryan gone, McConnell gone, Alexander gone, Graham gone....and I will be looking for Conservatives to challenge more House Reps as well...I will spend as much as I can....I want that GOP Establishment destroyed. The RNC can go to H!!!"

The GOP Civil War...The Role Of Outside Groups And The Empire Strikes Back from The Ace of Spades
"In many ways the current shutdown/debt ceiling/ObamaCare battles are merely proxy fights for the leadership and direction of the Republican Party. It's a fight that's been awhile in the making and is as ugly as it is necessary.

For the GOP, Rightward Ho!  Former Sen. Jim DeMint Wants 'True Conservatives' Only (By Doyle McManus) from the Los Angeles Times
"... here's what's different about DeMint and his allies: They are eager to target Republican incumbents, even to the point of challenging them in Republican primaries. ... And DeMint is helping to build an impressive and apparently permanent infrastructure of fundraising organizations with the avowed goal of displacing the GOP's traditional business backers.  ... As a result, some of the toughest, most expensive campaigns in next year's congressional election cycle may not be between Republicans and Democrats but in primaries that pit Republicans against each other — with the future of the GOP at stake."

GOP Battle Each Other on Fiscal Deal from Politico
"The House-Senate GOP divide is the latest sign of the growing Republican anxiety over how to end the first government shutdown in 17 years. Some polls indicate the fiscal standoff is sending the GOP to a historic nadir, a result that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) described as “devastating.”"

Establishment Republicans Assail Tea Party Over Government Shutdown (Thomas Beaumont) from the Huffington Post
"From county chairmen to national party luminaries, veteran Republicans across the country are accusing tea party lawmakers of staining the GOP with their refusal to bend in the budget impasse in Washington. The Republican establishment also is signaling a willingness to strike back at the tea party in next fall's elections."

GOP Voters, Business Interests, And Governors Are Abandoning Congressional Republicans (Igor Volsky) from Think Progress
"In yet another sign of trouble for the GOP, business interests are also showing signs of discontent, signaling a possible rift with Republicans ahead of the 2014 mid-term elections."

Baby Boomers Ruined The Government (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine
"The U.S. can lay the blame for its current political mess at the feet of my generation."

Ted Cruz’s Debacle (Daniel Larison) from the American Conservative 
"Cruz was so determined to ignore the views of anyone outside the party and even the views of many of those inside it that he led fellow Republicans into a disaster while remaining oblivious to the danger. Cruz’s debacle has been much more significant for the GOP because the party’s leaders ended up going along with his losing strategy."

Ted Cruz Is Living On Another Planet (Josh Barro) from Business Insider 
"Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) spoke to the Values Voters Summit, and his speech was really weird. It's like he's living on another planet. On Planet Cruz, there is a massive outpouring of public support for a government shutdown over Obamacare and it's scaring the hell out of Democrats. .. Losing one election wasn't nearly enough to wake Republican voters up to this problem. Ted Cruz isn't alone on his strange planet; much of the Republican Party is right there with him. And that's likely to be true for a long time."

The John Birchers' Tea Party (Adam Gopnik) from the New Yorker
"In their new book, “Dallas 1963,” Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis demonstrate in luxuriant detail just how clotted Dallas was with right-wing types in the period before Kennedy’s fatal visit. The John Birch Society, the paranoid, well-heeled, anti-Communist group, was the engine of the movement then, as the Tea Party is now—and though, to their great credit, the saner conservatives worked hard to keep it out of the official center, the society remained hyper-present."

Should the Tea Party split from the GOP? With popularity for a third party at an all-time high, maybe it’s time for Cruz and Co. to go it alone (Frances Weaver) from The Week
"Third parties tend to fail because people are worried about wasting their votes on candidates that often have no name-recognition, says The Economist. But there are many reasons why the magazine thinks the Tea Party could buck that trend:..."