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Lines and Language

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Eric Cantor’s primary loss may have been the shock that finally changes everything. That’s an awful lot to ask, but the early signs are that the various forms of establishment in politics and media were caught completely off guard. The response so far has been careful and even intelligent as the constantly wagging tongues have stopped long enough to give more thoughtful voices an opening.

Whether or not there is a permanent change remains to be seen. But the easy explanations quickly sank from their own weight while something that usually lurks much deeper is floating to the surface. If we can change the conversation, we can change the politics.  Crossies?

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Losing? Change the Rules!

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What would it take to end the shutdown or, more importantly, raise the debt ceiling in time to avoid default?  As polling shows that this tactic (not strategy!) has proven to be a terrible disaster for the Republican Party it would seem reasonable that there are enough votes in the House to pass a “Clean CR” or bill to fund the federal government and reopen everything.  CNN has polled the membership and found that indeed if the Senate bill was introduced on the floor of the US House it would pass rather easily with bipartisan support.

So why doesn’t a vote come up?  House rules normally allow any Representative  to bring a bill from the Senate with differences from the House directly onto the floor for a vote.  But in a highly unusual parliamentary maneuver the House simply changed the rules to take that out of the hands of any member and put it exclusively in the hands of Eric Cantor (R-VA).  And so it stands that he is the only person in the US right now that can end this standoff.

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Happy … Stuff

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Raise your hand if you are sick of the “Fiscal Cliff”.  Okay, let me count … 1 …. 2 … OK, there are a lot of you.  I guess that I shouldn’t write about the Fiscal Cliff then.  You’re back at work on 2 January like I am and we have a lot of stuff to do, right?

So, how about that House vote that … no, wait, I mean how about them Vikings, get to play the Packers at Lambeau!  AP is just on fire, I’ll bet they have a chance.  Anything to blur away the early hours of the first day back into the swing of things and avoid talking about Congress (the logical antonym of “progress”).

Sorry, folks.  I have to.  The House vote has not yet taken place as I write this, but the story is probably already written.  We waited all day for this to com e to a vote because it could not be voted on until it was sure it would pass.  Negotiations went on all day amounted to a lot of nothing in the end.  Or did they?  Something is up, I am sure.  Let’s think this through.

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