Well, it's over. The Drunk Weepy Oompa-Loompa has officially thrown in the towel and the shutdown nightmare will shortly be over. And what have the Republicans gotten for this self-inflicted disaster of epic proportions. Basically nothing. (Just ask Lindsey Graham.) Therefore, you can expect that there is a lot of reaction from the conservative ranks. And it's a hilarious sight to behold.
First, this little prediction from Matt Drudge:
Conservative news aggregator Matt Drudge seemed to suggest Wednesday that Democrats will win back control of the House of Representatives next year.
In a message to his more than 200,000 followers on Twitter, Drudge predicted that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will soon return to the post she held from 2007 until 2011:
His tweet simply read this:
Speaker Pelosi Part 2: Opening Jan 5. 2015
That's the type of conservative optimism I like to see, Drudge!
Now, what about the fat drug addict? What does Rush say?
Rush Limbaugh, prominent conservative radio show host, slammed the Republican party on Wednesday for being "irrelevant," lamenting that GOP leaders caved during their fight to defund Obamacare.
"I was trying to think earlier today if ever in my life I could remember any major political party being so irrelevant," Limbaugh said on his radio show. "I have never seen a major political party simply occupy placeholders, as the Republican party is doing."
Funny, that's not what you were saying last week, Rush:
A week ago, Limbaugh was singing a different tune. He applauded Sen. Ted Cruz's efforts to defund Obamacare, and said that the effort was a success no matter the outcome.
"The defund effort, to me, happened to be attractive because it was led finally by somebody who could articulate conservatism. Ted Cruz," Limbaugh said on his show last week about the push to defund Obamacare. "Maybe there's a point where it's considered successful even if they don't reach that specific goal."
What an difference an abject surrender makes.
And what about the House Suicide Caucus, who are casting desperately for a scapegoat for their utter failure? Well, as you might have guessed, they've found the usual one: it's all the liberal media's fault.
House conservatives conjured a familiar bogeyman Wednesday to explain their imminent surrender in the government shutdown fight: the liberal media.
Their tactics weren't to blame. Division with the House GOP conference doesn't account for it. They didn't overreach in aiming to dismantle Obamacare. Rather, it was the press that failed to communicate their message to the American people -- or blatantly misled them
Some specific Reps and their complaints:
"You guys in the media continued reporting that what the conservatives were asking for was the full repeal of Obamacare. That's absolutely false," said Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), a member of the Republican Study Committee and the point person during the Wednesday briefing.
"We never asked for a full repeal of Obamacare because we can't get that," he said. "We have voted on a full repeal of Obamacare that the Senate has rejected every single time. But what we were asking for, our position from the beginning, was exchanging a one-year CR for a one-year delay of Obamacare. That was something we thought both sides were giving on something."
And:
"We said that makes sense as a strategy. Let's fund the government. Let's treat every American the same. That's a pretty rationale argument, and that was the bill," said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). "That's where we started and where we've always been. That got lost in the shuffle of the last six weeks of the debate. That was pretty reasonable, but you guys all like to say that we're the conservatives, the guys that aren't."
And the most hilarious:
"Has anybody seen the media person to ask a liberal Democrat why it's okay to extend a delay to corporations and not individuals?" added Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) rhetorically. "I've seen it once. You know where I've seen it? Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. It's the only time I've seen that question asked."
Yes, a teabagger is actually using
Jon Stewart in
defense of his actions. These are truly surreal times, people.
And then there are those who think the President will somehow do their work for them:
Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) told reporters Wednesday that he had no doubt in his mind that President Obama would delay Obamacare's individual mandate before Jan. 1.
"I'll predict it right now that within the next few months, the president himself will delay the individual mandate," Salmon said during a briefing with reporters. "At the end of the day, mark my words, he will end up postponing it."
And he'll give me a pony while he's at it! And unicorns! Many, many unicorns!
I think Peter King, who has (strange, I know) been one of the voices of sanity in the GOP during this whole mess, put it best:
"This party is going nuts," King told HuffPost. "So many people I run into who are normal people -- and I hate to use that term -- they just can't understand what's going on."
I don't know about you and how you folks are enjoying today, but I think a little
Eric Cartman approach is needed.