Jellyfish and Tea
by digby
Love this piece from Josh Barro which correctly calls out the GOP jellyfish (also known as the Eunuch Caucus) who are as much to blame for what’s happening as the hard partying teabaggers:
The Most Irresponsible Officials In Washington DC Are The ‘Moderate’ Republicans
The most dangerous group in Congress is moderate Republicans, many from the northeast, who could reopen the government and break extremists’ grip on their caucus’ agenda, but choose not to.
According to the Washinton Post, 21 House Republicans say they are prepared to vote for a “clean” continuing resolution to reopen the government. Together with Democrats, this is enough votes to pass the bill that has already passed the Senate, reopen the government, and stop the madness.
Yet these Republicans who publicly say they favor a clean CR have repeatedly voted with their extremist colleagues to prevent it from coming to a vote.
If moderate House Republicans don’t want a government shutdown and favor a clean CR, why have they passed up on ways to end the shutdown?
Here are the three things they could do if they wanted to: read on
Why don’t they do something? Because they are being true to their nature, that’s why. They love to strut around taking credit for being the “grown-ups” in the GOP but never quite find it in themselves to actually go against the miscreants that make up the rest of their party.
Democrats have a mirror image in their party as well, except their “moderates” are more than happy to flex their muscles against the grassroots and the progressives in their party, even on the smallest issues. This imbalance is a big part of why the so-called “center” keeps shifting to the right.
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