Quote(s) Of The Week

The Republican Party is like the corpse in Weekend at Bernie's and the Tea Party is like the two guys who put sunglasses and a party hat on it and drag it around.  The Republican who summarized it best this week -- he was all over the news -- was this Indiana Tea Party guy named Marlin Stutzman, who said “We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t even know what that is.”  Say what you will about a toddler throwing a tantrum in a grocery store -- at least he knows he wants Cocoa Puffs.

- Bill Maher.

Obama’s view, which I share, is that the debt ceiling fight is far more important not only than the specific policies on the table, or even the catastrophic economic consequences of a debt breach. It’s a fight to preserve the Constitutional order. ***

[T]he bigger problem here is that conservatives are not acknowledging the Democrats’ belief. It’s not a pose. They genuinely think, regardless of the merits of the ransom demand, they can’t give in, both for the national long-term interest and on moral principle. Conservatives are acting like the problem here is that they asked for a bit too much to begin with, and want to start haggling down the price. The price isn’t the issue. If the conservative goal is to create the illusion of winning something for the debt ceiling, then they’ll come back next time to win more, and Democrats can’t allow that.

- Jonathan Chait.