Roll Call Headline 12:06 am EDT on 10/15/13:
Ted Cruz, House Republicans Meet in Secret at Tortilla Coast
Read all about it at:
http://blogs.rollcall.com/...
Ted Cruz met with his cabal of 15 to 20 of the most conservative House Republicans last night for approximately two hours at Tortilla Coast, a cozy restaurant and watering hole popular with D.C. pols. Not all were named but a number of notable conspirators were identified, including: "House Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Steve King of Iowa, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Raúl R. Labrador of Idaho, Steve Southerland II of Florida, Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Justin Amash of Michigan."
No one claims to know what exactly brought this clump of excrement together. It may have been as innocent as their monthly book club discussion of Mein Kampf. Or, it may have been to plot their strategy to block any deal, negotiated by Senate leadership, to end the Shutdown and avert the Debt Ceiling Default.
If the latter, what does it mean for the "conversations" taking place between Senator's Reid and McConnnell?
One obvious point would be to make damn clear to the whole world that no offer is binding on Senate Democrats unless the Resolution(s) passed by the Senate is also passed without any modification, alteration or addition by the House of Representatives.
Too many times we have seen what happens. Republican "leadership" baits our Democratic leaders into a compromise, only to have the Republicans renege on their side of the bargain and press for more concessions.
At this point, any individual Senator can torpedo the deal until at least after the Default deadline of midnight on 10/17/13. A Senator would merely have to voice an objection to immediately invoke the rule requiring 30 hours of debate prior to any vote.
Would it not be rank capitulation on the part of Democrats to agree to any deal that could meet with the approval of Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas? Or Mike Lee, Republican of Utah?
And even if Cruz and Company give tacit consent, will Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor even allow it to be voted on. It is his decision now, given the midnight rule change the Republicans rammed through the House. What does Cantor want to do and what can he do? Remember, he has the Tortilla Coast conspirators supporting and/or threatening him as they have successfully done with Speaker Boehner.
This is the problem with negotiating with terrorists. They can continue to demand concessions because they don't care who gets killed. But all the stories about "terrific progress" toward a deal makes it very difficult for Democrats to get up and leave the table. And each time you negotiate you further guarantee more extortion by the Republicans come January or February, when the short term deal expires.
The Democratic stance should be constant and unequivocal, "No Negotiations With Terrorists". Let the Republicans pass the clean Senate Continuing Resolutions before any substantive discussions take place.
Mon Oct 14, 2013 at 11:01 PM PT: There is a previous diary on the topic of this meeting of Cruz and the conservative House Members at Tortilla Coast. It is a good one and you can read it here: http://www.dailykos.com/...
I went ahead and published this diary as it was written independently and my reaction was quite different to the story.
Mon Oct 14, 2013 at 11:02 PM PT: gf120581 is the author of the first diary on this subject, referenced above.