Quote of the Week

“Anybody who would vote for that in the House as Republican would virtually guarantee a primary challenger.”

- Tea-Bagger Congressman Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, on the bipartisan deal currently being worked on in the Senate to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown.

What I like about this quote is that it demonstrates exactly why we are in this crisis right now, i.e., why a small group of radicals has been able to control the House.  In fact, the "you get primaried if you don't go along with us" threat used to be an unstated one.  The fact that Bagger Huelskamp now feels compelled to vocalize the threat tells me that the tide might be changing in the House and we may yet get out of this crisis with only moderate damage to our economy.  It also tells me that the GOP Civil War is really starting to heat up.

The situation does seem to be deteriorating for House Republicans.  Boehner's plan was apparently to reject the Senate compromise, vote on a House bill that would require ObamaCare concessions on the part of the Democrats, and then skip town before the Senate could send anything back.  But it looks like that plan is tanking in the House.

So it seems to me that it all comes down to whether Boehner submits the Senate Compromise bill to an up-or-down vote in the House.  If he does, the crisis is probably over because all Democrats and enough Republicans will vote for it .  If he does not, then we will default.