No Face Savers

Once again I keep hearing that for Boehner to get himself out of this mess of his own creation, he will need some kind of face saving concession that he can take to his mouth breathers. However, if today is any indication, there will be no face saver for Boehner.

Today was spent easily boxing Boehner into yet another corner of his own making, after the Speaker’s unwise comments on Sunday that he did not have the votes for either a clean CR or a clean debt ceiling vote. The response from all united Democrats everywhere was obvious to all: Prove it. Hold the vote. Do it now. That was the mantra today. But Boehner, being the weakest and most strategically dumb Speaker in the history of the United States, can’t do that, for, as everyone knows, both bills would pass.

The only way out of this now for Boehner is for him to, pardon the expression, Ladies, man up. Take his medicine. Face the consequences. Allow votes on both clean bills, allowing both to pass. Yes, he will in all likelihood lose his job of Speaker as a result, but that is not our fault. It is his. If he does not do it, yes, he may remain Speaker, for a while. But being solely responsible for a continued government shutdown and then a debt default that plunges the nation in the Great Depression II, his name will go down in history as more infamous and loathsome than Herbert Hoover. And then the GOP will lose the House.

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds 70% of Americans disapprove of how the Republicans in Congress are handling the budget negotiations, up 7 points from a week ago. Far fewer, 51%, disapprove of President Obama’s approach, essentially unchanged in the past week.

“In another way to look at the results, Obama’s gone from 41% to 50% approve-disapprove last week to 45% to 51% now – a 9-point negative margin then, a similar 6-point negative margin today… But the Republicans have gone from 26% to 63% approve-disapprove to 24% to 70%, an initial 37-point difference widening now to a 46-point negative result.”

So since the Republican Shutdown began, the President has gained in the polls, and the Republicans have dropped like a stone. Some more analysis of the internals from Daily Kos:

Republicans are more divided internally. A total of 45 percent of Republicans disapprove of Republicans in Congress. That’s nearly half. A total of 36 percent of Democrats disapprove of their own caucus, or just over a third.

The only people who approve of congressional Republicans are those who are “very conservative”, and even those guys only narrowly approve, 50-47.
Women disapprove of congressional Republicans 20-75, and non-whites disapprove 16-78. Luckily for Republicans, they no longer care about rebranding.

GOP losing big ground among Americans making over $100K. Looks like people who have them don’t want to see their investments wiped out.

To show how much this showdown is a loser for the GOP, a new Deseret News/KSL poll in Utah…. UTAH.. finds that 56% of voters disagreed it was worth shutting down the government as part of the effort by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and other members of the tea party caucus, and just 37% agreed. The poll also found Lee with a 43% to 35% approval rating.

Senator Lee is now vulnerable for reelection. In fracking Utah. Blood red Utah.