So, this is what passes as statesmanship in the modern-day GOP.
Appearing on Fox Business last night, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) told Lou Dobbs that his party's commitment to ideology over legislative accomplishment has benefited the nation, and that "each and every one of these fights" has been "good for this country." Reflecting the frustration apparent in one GOP senator's comment that "The new definition of success around here is just keeping the lights on," Dobbs asked Walsh to consider how gridlock over relatively small levels of spending looks from outside the beltway:
DOBBS: There's an old expression that I was taught, 'Just don't let it get reduced to principle.' [...] If I'm one of the 25 million people in this country who doesn't have a job and I hear a congressman, a billionaire, I hear anyone say to me the solution is something that's gonna take two to three years to get done, I'm gonna be gut-sick. And I think we've got a higher responsibility to the country than that, all of us, as citizens, let alone you folks elected to office.
WALSH: Well we do, Lou, but understand, we're in a bind. The House Republicans are in a bit of a bind here because we were sent to Washington to really try to undo everything this president's done, which we believe has destroyed this economy. It's caused a bumpy road. But I think each and every one of these fights that we have—and the super-committee and the debt ceiling's gonna come up again, and there'll be appropriations fights—I take a contrarian view, I think these are good for this country. The country's paying attention. They want us to come together on something, but they want us to be fiscally disciplined.
Good for the country. Of course, it shouldn't be surprising that Walsh would take such a cavalier attitude toward whether or not the federal government is funded. This is the guy who refuses to fund his own family.