As Debt Ceiling Approaches GOP Doubles Down on Bunkum

Republicans acknowledge that their decision to link the reopening of the government to the health care law is unpopular. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Monday found that disapproval of Congressional Republicans had jumped to 70 percent, from 63 percent late last month.

But David Winston, a Republican pollster close to Mr. Boehner, said Mr. Obama’s stance was likely to prove unpopular as well. “Anyone who says he knows how this is going to turn out doesn’t know,” Mr. Winston said. “We are in a very unsettled time.”

That's from today's story, "Senate Leaders Mull Raising Debt Ceiling in Challenge to House," by Jonathan Weisman and Jackie Calmes, and it pretty much says it all. Republicans have a losing strategy on their hands, one that promises to do lasting damage to the party's already tarnished brand, and the longer they stick with it the worse it is going to get for them. But rather than change course, judging by the quote from Boehner's pollster, the GOP plans to double down, hoping that some of the ensuing gore will splatter on Obama and besmirch him as well.

People are not trusting of the Republican mantra of "Just come to the table and talk" because everyone intuitively understands extortion and exploitation when he or she sees it. If this were all merely about talking and horse trading why the closure of government? Why the threats to default on U.S. debt and thereby undercut the global gold standard? No, people understand that this is blackmail carried out by an ignorant, bitter minority.

The Dow was down close to one percent yesterday. As Republicans maintain their charade -- the odious Andrew Ross Sorkin writes in a DealBook column today about some on Wall Street who think that failure to lift the debt ceiling is no big deal -- this will worsen. It should provide some impetus to efforts in the Senate to pass a debt ceiling bill. And, assuming that Obama doesn't toss the GOP a lifeline and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, all that will be left will be the inevitable -- for Boehner to capitulate and allow a straight up-or-down vote in the House.

Boehner might lose his speakership as a result.

And while the other option -- that Boehner stands by the Tea Party and hurls the nation into default -- remains a possibility, I think it is unlikely. The Republican Party would suffer enormous damage, probably more than its gerrymandering could withstand.