By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
On Friday, the fourth day of the first government shutdown since the time when cell phones weren’t everywhere and Bob Dole was a presidential candidate, there was momentary cause for hope. A definite sense was in the air that House Speaker Boehner and his radical Republican puppeteers had wildly overplayed their hand in their seemingly quixotic attempt to obliterate the Affordable Care Act. They were being pilloried by every news media outlet not owned by Australian fascists, the poll numbers were savagely against them and getting worse, and even their own hardcore shut-it-down congressional representatives couldn’t explain with any coherence what it was they were trying to accomplish.
(Image: Troy Page, t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Mr. Wright, Roger Blackwell, rscottjones, tadfad)
The fifth paragraph of that day’s lead New York Times story told the tale: “They are only trying to survive another day, Republican strategists say, hoping to maintain unity as long as possible so that when the Republican position collapses, they can capitulate on two issues at once – financing the government and raising the debt ceiling – and head off any internal party backlash. Republican lawmakers say Mr. Boehner has assured them privately that he will not permit a default.”
It doesn’t get much more straightforward than that, and the line about Boehner assuring everyone that default lay nowhere in the cards was a soothing balm. Those of us tuned into every little detail of this ongoing debacle read that, relaxed a micromillimeter, and enjoyed the first half of the weekend…until Sunday morning, when the mood turned on a dime after Speaker Boehner did a convincingly defiant doomsday aria on the ABC show “This Week.”