When the first teatard revolution occurred, in 1994, it was led by a teatard type and that teatard type became Speaker. Boehner is not a teatard type and I don’t think Gingrich ever would have ever talked about his caucus in the way that Boehner did in the article John linked to.
How would things be different right now with a teatard speaker? Would he have more credibility with the loons and therefore be better able to push something through the House? Or would he be one with the loons, pushing the country towards default? What would be happening, for example, if Michele Bachmann were speaker right now?
I’m asking in part because I’ve long believed that a president Bachmann or Palin would be less dangerous than a president Pawlenty, because Bachmann and Palin wouldn’t be taken seriously by much of anyone, not even by other Republicans in Washington. Now I’m beginning to wonder if that’s wrong, if the Congressional caucus, at least in the House, would go along with Pray The Gay Away Day and a moose-backed currency and the rest.
arguingwithsignposts
And Pawlenty would?
Violet
A President Bachmann or Palin would still be the President of the United States, and thus would have to be taken seriously to a certainly extent. So while people could, and probably would, laugh at the suggestion of moving to a moose-backed currency, the fact is, if President Bachmann or Palin promoted it and had enough support in Congress, we’d all be trading in moose futures.
Good stuff for comedians, though.
Bender
I don’t know, Ted Rall. Why don’t you tell us exactly what the crazy voices in your head guess would happen?
Thanks, Ted.
meh
omg sweet delicious irony:
The GOP can’t get the RSC to COMPROMISE on Boehner’s Plan, yes they are actually lamenting the lack of co-operation from their own caucus…this shit writes itself
JGabriel
The Republican Study Group attacks its own (warning, Politico link):
AH-HAHAHA!
That’s rich (or job-creatory (ish?)), a Republican rep. complaining that Republican staffers won’t compromise.
Hehehee.
.
The Dangerman
If any good can come of this debt ceiling madness, it’s that there is even LESS chance that Bachmann or Palin will become President.
The Republican nominee? Sure. I expect one of either MB or SP to be the nominee.
President? Never.
I don’t see how this week (or, if this drags on, the shutdown) plays well for the Republicans nationally; they may keep the House and might even still swing the Senate, but Presidency? No way. No matter how bad the economy gets in a post shutdown meltdown.
Punchy
@ meh
What’s “RSC”?
Violet
@meh:
Even better, she’s threatening to go Galt:
She might quit! So there!
MattF
Hmmm. Well, do you think Caligula was a bad emperor? Or was he just a Silly Willy that no one paid attention to?
meh
@Punchy – the hard core tea party caucus – it reminds me of the quote from Die Hard
JGabriel
@Punchy:
Republican Study Committee. A Republican House working group that researches and proposes new ways to destroy the country.
.
cleek
a President Bachmann would give the GOP permission to indulge every wingnut legislative and policy fantasy. it would be revolting.
Davis X. Machina
@arguingwithsignposts: He’s still A Guy in a Blue Suit. The other two aren’t. Perry’s got the same edge. That, all by itself, gets you to third-down-and-short.
Paul W.
I think you have it wrong… counting on anyone to lead these loons away from the gospel is not going to get it done. There is no credibility if you aren’t in lockstep with the Bachmann backbenchers, if you are in the sorry instance of having them in your caucus you don’t tell them what to do you just hope you give them enough red meat that they keep quite and out of the way or don’t make you look like a fool.
The teaparty power is not subject to the leaders of the GOP, it comes from outside sources and the base of idiots who supply their primary votes. They think they are martyrs.
The REAL benefit of having a crazy at the helm is that, in theory, it forces the non-crazies in the party, apathetic voters, and a blind media to call them what they are and stop giving them a pass.
There is no legislative upside to crazy once it gets in your Congress (see the Senate, for example), which is why we are in the shithole we are in now.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
The House doesn’t have a Speaker; it has Woofers and Tweeters. Boehner is a Woofer, Cantor is a Tweeter. And they aren’t even trying to play the same song.
El Cid
I think it’s cool that people now remember that there were ultra-crazy super-right wingers before the Tea Party.
Sure, things are different, and the balance of ultra-rightists to the hard right and right wing Republicans is different.
But it’s gotten to the point where “Tea Party” nutballs are seen as politicians who are substantially different than recent generations of national destruction-courting ultra-rightists, rather than politicians whose ultra-right colleagues are organizationally stronger than in prior years.
Davis X. Machina
@Punchy: Republican Study Committee. Or the Red Guards. I can’t tell the difference any more.
David Hunt
In three years, all court cases would be preceded by a crowd chanting, “Two men enter. One man leaves.”
scav
Banana.
Brachiator
I don’t understand this at all. What does it mean that no one would take them seriously? Would this magically neutralize their presidential authority?
Seems to me that the Republicans would be deliriously happy to get either of these two into the White House, as would many of their supporters.
Thoughtcrime
Obama: Knock, knock!
Boehner: Who’s there?
Obama: Boo.
Boehner: Boo who?
Obama: Don’t cry; it’s only a knock-knock joke.
El Cid
A Bachmmmmannnnn Presidency would be indicating the kinds of governmental collapse which used to be mocked by Americans when it was taking place in Latin America.
Hopefully we’ll really work out something like a “Super Congress” as a Government of National Unity and it will lead to decades of bipartisan stability, as it did in the time of the “Punto Fijo” decades in Venezuela.
Ash Can
If a teabagger had enough votes to be elected speaker, presumably the House caucus would indeed go along with whatever chaos and nihilism that speaker advocated. What would change would be the monied interests’ focus on the Democrats. Right now, in my estimation, the money guys are leaning primarily on the (relatively) sane Republicans (I’m assuming the teahadists are too busy strapping on their dynamite vests to answer the phone when these guys call) to bludgeon as many loons into submission as possible. If the speaker him/herself were an economic suicide bomber, the money guys would have to get on the horn to Pelosi et al. as well, and impress upon them that their help was needed, that it was no longer a matter of partisan gamesmanship but an “Independence Day” sort of scenario in which we all have to throw in together and repel the alien invasion and keep Earth from being annihilated.
Paul W.
I missed my edit window, but for the first time in my politically aware life (not very long, since 2007) I am seeing THIS FRIGGIN HEADLINE ON POLITICO (of all places!!):
GOP IN CHAOS.
Just, wow. It must be bad over there now.
Amanda Hugginkiss
I’m gonna go full-on concern troll here. Can we stop with appending “tard” to everyone we despise? Seven times in your post, Doug. It’s shitty and ableist.
I’m a mom. There are kids with developmental disabilities in my family’s social circle. Every time I see “tard” used as the putdown, I think about these children and how much contempt is being heaped upon them. It’s like saying, “Hey kid, I think that what you are is absolutely the most awful and worthless thing a person can be, so I’m going to use it as an insult.”
Martin
Well, she’d be openly advocating for default, just as she’s done so far. She’d be getting called out by Senate Republicans and demanding that House Republicans replace her as speaker, and Obama would be eviscerating her on national tv.
Boehner is getting support both from Senate Republicans and Obama because if he falls, Cantor is up, and then we’re really in deep.
catclub
The RSC (only 170 members strong) budget was the one that the Democrats voted present on, and the GOP had to panic and flip their votes, so that only the RYAN budget would be passed by the House. The RSC one was too extreme.
It is to laugh. Or Cry.
slag
@scav:
Or, as John Belushi once said, “Sometimes a Republic is just a Republic.”
scav
Needs more Reduced Shakespeare Company.
Macbeth and Titus Adronicus
Thoughtcrime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAxBPnNrsJM
Thoughtcrime
This, too, also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfgDPLkMg-w
Paul in KY
I think a Pres. Palin or Bachmann would send me screaming into the night. Pres. Pawlenty would probably not be quite as bad.
Pres. Perry would be GWB redux (only without the easy going, aw shucks persona Shrub brought to the job).
Martin
You know what the really scary thing about this is?
This escalation is because the teaparty got owned in the last interim budget fight (in April). They’re likely to come out as losers here as well (or at least they’ll feel like losers). The very next major bit of legislation to deal with? The full budget.
If they declare that they lost here, they’re going to be even worse in the next budget show. At some point, the GOP is going to have to cut these guys loose.
NonyNony
No this is wrong.
Bachmann or Palin would be less dangerous than Pawlenty because they would generate more opposition. Pawlenty fits the narrative of “reasonable Republican” so when he suggests unreasonable things he’ll do it in a way that sounds reasonable enough that reporters will be able to write the “some say … while others say …” narrative very easily.
With Bachmann that narrative is harder to write because she doesn’t go out of her way to sound reasonable to people who don’t already think her way.
Given a choice between a “reasonable” Republican and an honest one, it’s better to have the honest one. There isn’t a single policy position that would come out of a Republican controlled House that Pawlenty would balk at and Bachmann would sign off on – they’d both sign off just fine and dandy. If the House passed “Pray the Gay Away Day” there’s no reason to believe that Pawlenty would veto it.
Thoughtcrime
And if this doesn’t work, severed horse heads in the uncooperative beds tonight.
JGabriel
@Amanda Hugginkiss:
You’re right. That is heinous.
.
FlipYrWhig
@ ThatLeftTurn :
I lol’ed.
Hill Dweller
Over at Digby’s place, she links to the new Gallup poll that shows independents giving Republicans a +12 lead on jobs.
The Republican party absolutely destroyed the economy, and has done absolutely nothing since taking over the House, yet they are somehow +12 on jobs. We’re f’d.
Paul in KY
NonyNony, I’m thinking about Pres. Palin/Bachmann/Perry with the access to our nuclear codes. Hell, with Pres. Palin, Todd would have access to the codes!
I just don’t think Pawlenty is that batshit.
JGabriel
Politico:
6 new yes votes.
Duuuude! Way to command yer caucus!
.
kay
Or it could go the other way, and they could end up as what they are: the Right wing of the GOP.
Why is everyone so persuaded that Boehner won’t just bully them into line? He did last time. He seems to be doing it again. This will be twice.
Then they’re standard-issue Right wing Republicans who never really cut any spending or balance a budget (like the rest of the GOP) and there is no “Tea Party”. The distinction is meaningless if they always fall into line, and it looks to me like they’re going to fall into line.
Then the only question becomes whether media and conservatives can continue to pretend there’s a “Tea Party” that is somehow different than the Right flank of the GOP.
Yevgraf
Yer wrong, Doug. A teatard Speaker could very well find himself the beneficiary of a palace coup, orchestrated by Our Conservative Supreme Court and backed by the Tribulation Air Force. I like to think that the Navy and Marines would come through (the Army would immediately go into a 15 month cycle of planning retreats to determine how best to respond) and restore legitimate govt, but you can’t tell these days.
somethingblue
@violet:
I’d like to nominate “Trading in Moose Futures” as a category tag.
Brachiator
@Paul W.
And when has this happened before? When has it worked out before?
scav
@Thoughtcrime: Oh I’m glad I’m not the only one that heard the knocking. Here
JGabriel
@Brachiator:
Arguably, 1973.
.
FlipYrWhig
@ Hill : That is totally crazy. I would love to know what people think the Republican plan on “jobs” is, or would be. Is it still something involving tax cuts? Because they haven’t even been pushing that. I think it involves the Underpants Gnomes Study Group.
aisce
@ brachiator
1964. black people continued to exist and demand equality and rights and stuff, however, and the effect was short lived.
Cris (without an H)
@Hill Dweller
Sometimes I think “Independents” are the stupidest people on the planet. Stupid, not ignorant: if you don’t pay attention to politics, fine, you don’t have an opinion, so don’t exercise it. But an “Independent” does know something about politics, and somehow thinks that either party can reasonably represent their interests.
Other times, I think “Independents” are just partisans who don’t want to acknowledge their partisanship. (That was me 15 years ago.)
protected static
@slag:
…and here I was thinking it was a safeword.
cargo
I’m thinking we’re basically around the Severan Dynasty period, and a President Bachmann or similar crazy person would precipitate our Third Century Crisis period. How fun! And no, Obama’s not our Heliogabalus, although the right wants to paint him that way.
Just Some Fuckhead
@FlipYrWhig:
Nope.. turns out the Underpants Gnome was calling all the other gnomes telling them not to support a jobs bill.
MonkeyBoy
Do you mean Palin as president or a Palin presidency?
I would presume that a Palin or Bachmann would be pretty much a figurehead with little involvement in day to day affairs and presidential staff members would really run the show. And those staff members would likely be installed from outside. Remember Reagan and GWB?
catclub
Paul in KY @ 39 If Bachmann were Pres, Marcus would have the codes and not give them to Michele. Submission and all that.
Gustopher
If Bachmann were speaker now, rather than Boehner, the Galtian Overlords would have realized how f.cked they were three months ago, and been applying pressure for a while to avoid a default.
Would three months of pressure from the Galtian Overlords be enough to not get to the brink of catastrophe? Open question, but my guess is yes, since they control the airwaves.
slag
@protected static: If this blog teaches us anything, it’s that there are no safe words.
Brachiator
@JGabriel
@aisce
RE: And when has this happened before?
I’m missing how either 1973 or 1964 relates to the proposition that “having someone crazy at the helm” works. Nixon was craven, not crazy, and he certainly was not laughed at and ignored before he ended up resigning. LBJ and 1964 is not applicable at all.
And that worked out really well.
gene108
Pawlenty would be worse than Bush, Jr. Bush, Jr.’s fatal flaw as President is he really had no real ideas other than “looking good” for photo ops.
He left Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al. to make the big policy decisions, such as invading Iraq, ignoring Richard Clark, etc.
I think there’s a lot more ideological fervor on the Right, at this moment in time, then there was 11 years ago. People, who would be in Pawlenty’s administration, would be running loose trying to push every nut-job idea they have as serious policy. I think Pawlenty’s “centrism” can tamp down the nut-jobs a bit, but he isn’t enough of a leader to get control of the mob…er..his Cabinet.
Palin would be worse still because she really has no clue and will do whatever people tell her, so long as she keeps on the gravy-train. She’d be more of a figure head than Bush, Jr. and not as smart or well read. The little Republican operatives would run around pushing their nutty ideas.
The only saving grace will be that they will negate themselves against each other, with regards to who can destroy the social safety net the fastest.
I’m not sure about Bachmann. I don’t think she’s clueless. What I fear is she really is a true believer in the nonsense she spews. She really does believe in “pray away the gay” and other points the teabaggers have come to embrace.
If she were President, she’d put a great big Presidential stamp of approval on the nuttiness that her underlings would think up and give it some direction, so they wouldn’t cancel each other out.
Why anyone would think Palin and Bachmann would be less bad than Pawlenty is beyond me.
Davis X. Machina
@Cris (without an H):
Self-identified independents have partisan voting patterns indistinguishible from self-identified Democrats or Republicans. So there are independents who always vote Democratic, and independents who always vote Republican, but only 5-10% of the electorate are independent independents. Larry Sabato says 7%.
aisce
@ brachiator
er, what? i was talking about barry goldwater and the birchers. you and paul w. never said they had to actually get elected, just become the face of the party so the media couldn’t look away.
scav
@slag: Safe words? Ha. Not in the presence of a classic: Orange Banana
slag
@scav: Hey- I enjoy a good knock knock joke as much as the next person. But I probably enjoy a good Freud joke a little more than the next person. Especially when the Freud joke is like three times removed and the next person doesn’t enjoy it at all.
Martin
It’s getting a lot harder, though, and the Tea Party isn’t having that ‘Hmm, maybe we have this wrong’ moment. If anything, they seem to be doubling down. They’re convinced that there’s free money out there somewhere, where a cursory review of the reports that Treasury puts out (and has for ages) would show that’s simply not the case.
We had $81.993B in cash as of this morning. Yesterday we collected $2.225B in taxes and paid $1.887B straight to DOD.
scav
@slag: Knob Knob jokes have an equally long and illustrious history. Probably longer as caves didn’t necessarily have doors.
Cain
@Martin:
Freedom is expensive and well it’s on the march, donchaknow?
BTW I totally stole your ‘Republicans are marinating in clown juice’ for a post on G+ yesterday. Made me look witty ;)
Cris (without an H)
@scav:
Freudian autocorrect?
Brachiator
@aisce:
Uh, OK, I guess. With respect to the Civil Rights movement, it was probably more the newsreel footage of Bull Connor and others persecuting Freedom Marchers circa 1961 and 1962, not Barry and the Birchers.
MazeDancer
@Amanda Hugginkiss:
Have to agree that using the tard suffix feels as painful as darkie or something worse must have in the past.
Know several wonderful kids/young adults with developmental delays, some with Downs Syndrome. They’re sports fans, who read the sports pages daily, and have a strong sense of fairness. Would rather any of them were voting on raising the debt ceiling than current Republicans.
Jado
I think that in the event that the POTUS is a useless sack of donkey crap and no one takes him/her seriously, it becomes vitally important to check the VP, chief of staff, national security advisor, secdef, etc. Bad things can still happen.
Chimpy McStagger proved this all to well.