"Stale, Moss-Covered, Wacko Birds"

Anyone know what that colorful description is about?


Never mind, I'll tell you:


That's what one bunch of GOPers is saying about another bunch of GOPers.

When a political party's only goal is to cripple a presidency, and therefore the country, it usually ends up eating its own, and here are some examples of how the modern Republican Party, in thrall to the crazies in the Tea Party. is doing that very thing:


From TPM:


“ 'I didn’t start this one and I don’t plan on starting things by criticizing other Republicans,' Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said recently as he and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie likened one another to various cuts of a butchered pig. 

 'But if they want to make me the target, they will get it back in spades.' 

 No matter who started it, in the past few months, one Republican called others 'wacko birds,' another said some of the party’s lawmakers were 'stale and moss-covered' and a third suggested one member of the GOP was a tool of the White House. 

 A recent flare-up over defunding the health law prompted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to question the political manhood of fellow Republicans unwilling to risk closing down the government over the future of 'Obamacare,' as GOP critics call the law they want to repeal. 'They’re scared of being beaten up politically,' he said."

Here's a GOP shill, Charles Krauthammer on the same subject:



"(b) Obamacare 

 The other battle is about defunding Obamacare. Led by Sens. Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, the GOP insurgents are threatening to shut down the government Oct. 1 if the stopgap funding bill contains money for Obamacare. 

 This is nuts. The president will never sign a bill defunding the singular achievement of his presidency. Especially when he has control of the Senate. Especially when, though a narrow majority (51 percent) of Americans disapprove of Obamacare, only 36 percent favor repeal. President Obama so knows he'll win any shutdown showdown that he's practically goading the Republicans into trying. 

 Never make a threat on which you are not prepared to deliver. Every fiscal showdown has redounded against the Republicans. The first, in 1995, effectively marked the end of the Gingrich revolution. The latest, last December, led to a last-minute Republican cave that humiliated the GOP and did nothing to stop the tax increase it so strongly opposed. 

 Those who fancy themselves tea party patriots fighting a sold-out cocktail-swilling establishment are demanding yet another cliff dive as a show of principle and manliness. 

 But there's no principle at stake here. This is about tactics. If I thought this would work, I would support it. But I don't fancy suicide. It has a tendency to be fatal."




The GOP has given up on governing and adopted a siege mentality, inspired by the radicals in their party.  When the Republicans took charge of the House in 2010, their mantra was "Jobs!  Jobs!  Jobs!" on which they've delivered NOTHING.  They've continued in their efforts to be the GOOs (Great Obstructionist Opposition) that has delivered nothing but pain and suffering in the states where they're in the majority and in the House.  

Paul Krugman explains this strange phenomenon that has taken over a once great political party: 


"Last week House Republicans voted for the 40th time to repeal Obamacare. Like the previous 39 votes, this action will have no effect whatsoever. But it was a stand-in for what Republicans really want to do: repeal reality, and the laws of arithmetic in particular. The sad truth is that the modern G.O.P. is lost in fantasy, unable to participate in actual governing."

[skip]


"Republicans, confronted with the responsibilities of governing, essentially threw a tantrum, then ran off to sulk. 

 How did the G.O.P. get to this point? On budget issues, the proximate source of the party’s troubles lies in the decision to turn the formulation of fiscal policy over to a con man. Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has always been a magic-asterisk kind of guy — someone who makes big claims about having a plan to slash deficits but refuses to spell out any of the all-important details. 

Back in 2011 the Congressional Budget Office, in evaluating one of Mr. Ryan’s plans, came close to open sarcasm; it described the extreme spending cuts Mr. Ryan was assuming, then remarked, tersely, 'No proposals were specified that would generate that path.'

 What’s happening now is that the G.O.P. is trying to convert Mr. Ryan’s big talk into actual legislation — and is finding, unsurprisingly, that it can’t be done. 

Yet Republicans aren’t willing to face up to that reality. Instead, they’re just running away."



Thus, conscience does make cowards of them all!