Eaten by their own dragon
by David Atkins
Here’s a study in two contrasting stories. First, we see President Obama tying the shutdown to Cuccinelli like an anchor to a drowning man:
Democrats gambled on Sunday that Virginia voters are angrier with Republicans over the shutdown than at Barack Obama for the botched health care rollout.
The president worked during an afternoon rally in the Washington suburb of Arlington to link the GOP candidate for governor, Ken Cuccinelli, with the wing of the national party he blames for paralysis.
“You’ve seen an extreme faction of the Republican Party that has shown again and again and again that they’re willing to hijack the entire party and the country and the economy and grind progress to an absolute halt if they don’t get 100 percent of what they want,” Obama told a crowd of 1,600 in a high school gymnasium.
“You cannot afford to have a governor who is thinking the same way,” he added, highlighting how furloughs hurt Virginia more than almost anywhere else. “That’s a practical job. They can’t afford to be an ideologue.”
But just in case you thought Republicans and their base would be chastened by the experience, there’s always Alabama:
Tuesday’s special primary runoff for an Alabama congressional seat is heading toward a photo finish — and emerging as a potential black eye for the Republican establishment forces that have converged on the race.
Despite a fierce, last-minute push from House GOP leaders and the business community to supply cash and endorsements to Bradley Byrne, public polling shows the former state senator in a tight race with Dean Young, a flame-throwing tea party contender with a penchant for controversial remarks.
A Wednesday poll conducted by the Republican consulting firm Cygnal showed Young, a wealthy real estate investor, with a 43.2 percent to 40.2 percent lead over Byrne among likely voters. Sixteen percent of those surveyed said they were undecided. The results were within the survey’s 3 percentage point margin of error.
The establishment Republicans have whipped their base into a fever pitch of hysteria. They can’t control them anymore. It’s going to play out like a bad monster movie, but one where the poor and the middle class are victimized along with the people who created the monster in the first place.
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