Think back on this debt-ceiling thing. Months ago it would have been unthinkable....

[Armstead]

....to believe that even the reactionary Republican Party would ever be irresponsible enough to not allow the debt ceiling to be raised as a matter of necessary and routine housekeeping.

That far-seeing sage Lawrence O'Donnell on election night said that only Rand Paul and maybe a few other irrational zealots would be irresponsible enough to use that as an opportunity for leverage to push the teabag agenda.

Now, President Obama and other Democrats (not all) and the remaining "adult" Republicans have allowed themselves to be placed at the mercy of a relatively small number of teabaggers who are threatening to blow up the economy if they don't get their way.

Funny how the Washington/Wall St./Corporate Establishment, which is usually so good at quashing anything outside the "conventional wisdom" -- especially when it is liberal/progressive -- has allowed the fringe right to hijack the agenda so quickly and completely.

So now, those all-powerful establishment figures have allowed us to be backed into a corner where the only debate is how Draconian and awful the cuts have to be to prevent imminent financial collapse by not getting a "deal" on something as basic and routine as raising our line of credit.

Intentional or a massive screw-up?

[graywarrior]

1. Let's all remember to thank the media for giving credibility to the teabaggers

[rurallib]

3. more than credibility - they created and grew the little monster

and for the media it has probably paid dividends.
How many would be watching CNN on a summer Sunday afternoon were it not for the baggers.
Sell them viagra pills and diet potions etc.

[polichick]

2. Funny how the corporate interests that created the Teabagger Monster have lost control.

[graywarrior]

4. Or, that's what they've led us to believe

There's strings being pulled by the Kochs, I'm sure.

[PATRICK]

5. Don't need to pull strings

Useful idiot to herd the cowardice and duplicity of the others and create agenda, pretext, no options, everything. To try to interfere or even let them act would ruin the tool and the agenda. Koch's just sit back and watch the fun because the people have no power in this insulting malicious game.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. Dr. Frankenstein...

couldn't control his monster, either.

[Hippo_Tron]

7. What makes you think there will be cuts at this point?

Boehner walked away from a deal with substantial cuts because Obama proposed it. The President has backed them into a corner in the sense that he can propose draconian cuts and they still can't accept them because they would be accepting "Obama's plan". Their only out is to go with McConnell's plan or something like it.

[Armstead]

8. Either way, we should not be going through this kubuki dance

[Hippo_Tron]

9. Agreed, but as a side note I don't like the term "Kabuki dance" or "Kabuki theater" in this context

Frankly I don't see how it is any more applicable to these situations than simply calling it "theater" or "dance". And also, I would hardly be surprised if the origins are a bit racist.

[Armstead]

12. Okay, If you prefer "meaningless pre-determined ritual"....Or simply Melodrama

[Armstead]

14. P.S. Similar to the meaningless rtituals that led to the Iraq War

[wizstars]

10. The Tea-Pottyers will be the ruination of America.

I only hope they on't mind going down with the rest of us.....

[NorthCarolina]

11. Completely scripted, good-cop bad-cop kabuki theater. n/t

[woo me with science]

13. +100000 It is a sham, a tableau, a facade, and a theft in broad daylight.

And if this "Super Congress" bullshit becomes reality, our representative system is dead, and so is our future.

The oligarchy owns us, and they are coming for us now.