Blame?

The Republican's can't.

The public doesn't.

So what will the "progressives" do? Matt Osborne frames the choices...

There are two ways progressives can react: (A) use the next three months as an opportunity to drive teabaggery to the margins by agitating for change with Congress as their focus, or (B) bitch about Obama some more to make their irrelevance complete.

I vote (A).

An answer, perhaps…

…to one of the questions that occurred below…


Hat tip to Anne Laurie.

The problem…

…isn't the relative quality of the Democratic spine, or President Obama's facility at negotiation, or who or what is right or wrong. Here, via Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), is the problem...

"It has always been a straight up or down vote. The new leadership in the House has decided that they want to add some budget cuts or other considerations to this vote, because that is their preference, and they are the leadership, so we are in this quagmire."

As far as the debt ceiling is concerned, we have a problem because the Republicans decided they wanted a problem. You might ask why, but the important question is what, as in what is "the single most important thing" they want to achieve. That's the lens to view every Republican action and statement through.

They call it politics. Some, to coin a phrase, call it treason.

Happy Monday!

Clinton confident...

NFL optimistic...

…and there's heartwarming news from hither and yon.

Feel better now?

A reminder…

…from Jonathan Bernstein.

Remember, almost all of what we're seeing is either bargaining, spin, or some other form of posturing or misinformation. That's not bad -- but it is what it is, and there's no point in pretending that it's anything else.

If you think you know what's going to happen based on what they're - no matter who "they" are - saying, you should probably keep a good recipe for crow pie handy.

From the "Not exactly news" file.

Republicans don't know what to do next.

What they're doing is bad enough.

What can you expect from crooks, liars and bullies?

Sometimes Democrats are "not helpful."

Sometimes they're not even Democrats.

So, if all we get out of the deal...

...is an increase in the debt ceiling, isn't that pretty much all we wanted?

Might be something to that mulit-dimensional chess stuff after all...

Clear?

Crystal. Mark Sumner…

There is no fiscal crisis. Everyone should be clear on that.

The United States is not bankrupt. Social Security is not about to founder. Wall Street is not on a precipice, the IMF is not standing by demanding massive shifts in our government, and U.S. bonds are not trading 1:1 with Charmin. There is nothing wrong.

Nothing except that the Republican Party is prepared to slice the nation's throat to get its way.

Nothing to add, except that...

Seems to me…

…that you can get "several Republican and Democratic sources" to say just about anything, especially off the record.

Just sayin'...

Good question...

…from Ari Melber.

What are we to make of the fact that two of the top priorities for the 112th Congress, convening for the first time today, involve an irrelevant charade and an irresponsible threat?

I'm not sure it can be answered in words appropriate to a typically family friendly blog, but it's a good question.

Hat tip to Fixer.