I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about the two Republican clowns in my neck of the woods, but how they’re handling their toxic “no” votes on Wednesday is a revelation. Today’s tactic is hang the DJ:
Both Rep. Chris Collins of Clarence and Rep. Tom Reed of Corning said in response to questioning that it was a mistake for House Republicans to tie the funding of government to defunding of Obamacare – a strategy that they and the GOP leadership had agreed to under pressure from tea party forces.
Collins, in an interview, blamed the failed strategy on Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who goaded several dozen ultra-conservative lawmakers in the House to pursue the shutdown strategy.
“I think Sen. Cruz has done a disservice to the Republican Party,” Collins said. “He is an extremist, and he’s the one that had the rallying cry of repeal Obamacare, defund Obamacare, delay Obamacare.”
Reed, on a conference call with reporters on Thursday, dodged a question about who was responsible for the House strategy – which could have succeeded only if President Obama and the Democratic Senate agreed to gut the health care law, Obama’s signature accomplishment. “It was a poor strategy,” Reed acknowledged.
Both of these assholes voted “No”. Their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and public statements are all full of tea talk and anti-Obamacare graphics. I’d say they’re acting like scared little weasels but that would be an insult to polecats.
Assuming Boehner and McConnell straightjacket the insane portions of their caucus for the next year, my guess is that Wednesday’s vote isn’t going to be as toxic as current polls indicate. But when you vote for disaster on Wednesday, and then cry to reporters on Thursday about how Ted Cruz slipped a roofie into your drink and made you execute a “poor strategy”, that’s a campaign game-changer. If you could look in the spank bank of the average DCCC operative, this is the kind of story they fantasize about. Ted Cruz didn’t elect these fuckers. Ted Cruz is an oily McCarthy-looking flatulating anus from Texas who has about as much appeal in Western New York as open bedsores and penicillin-resistant syphilis. I am starting to think that you can put a solid -2 on the board for Republicans in your Congressional projections for New York in 2014.