So today is when the “silly season” of politics was supposed to end, and the serious business of responsible governing begin, at least for the brief period necessary to handle essential chores in Washington like keeping the federal government operating.
But instead, the atmosphere in Washington, as chronicled by those tireless pulse-takers at Politico, is crazy as ever. First there’s a big table-setting piece from Seung Min Kim entitled “Countdown to Shutdown” which casts doubt on Mitch McConnell’s ability to sidetrack a Ted Cruz-led drive to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding. And there you’ve got a Sherman/Bresnahan report on the House which more or less predicts that John Boehner will finally get taken down by the hostility of House conservatives.
If either of these disasters for Establishment Republicans actually occur, we will witness the final refutation of that hardy 2014 political “narrative” that the great big adults of the GOP have gotten control of the crazy people.
Here’s something else to ponder: if it is indeed the Planned Parenthood issue that leads to the overthrow of the Boehner/McConnell directorship, it will represent not simply a revolt of the back-benchers against the godless RINO Establishment, but also an uprising against the major national antichoice organizations, who have reportedly signaled they’d rather not risk Republicans losing the presidential election by a government shutdown.
Now that would be silly, wouldn’t it?
