I understand that discharge petitions have only rarely been used for major legislation, and that members of the majority party are often reluctant to sign on to them. However, given the weakness of Speaker Boehner and the stated positions of several republican members of the House that they are willing to vote for a "clean" bill, such as the one sent to them by the senate, why not try? No sane person wants a government shutdown or a credit default, and there are a few remaining sane republicans in the house. It only takes 17 republicans to support a discharge position; perhaps they can be found. And there actually is competent, rational, realistic leadership in the democratic party; let's urge those people to try.