Robert Costa at NRO provides a visceral - indeed, cinematic - account of the post-vote scene in the House basement last night, where the Pub caucus gathered to hear Speaker Boehner's post-mortem. The Speaker's short, sad, moment in front of the group. Various members standing up to exhort or shame their fellows. Small clusters within the caucus heading out for nearby watering holes to get a handle on what had just happened.
Is it a defeat for Republicans? In a certain sense, yes - the sense that will be the main point of MSM coverage of it. The Beltway and the MSM, you see, set great store by image. The Pubs now look like they can't muster cohesion.
Me, I think it's great. Flat-out fabulous. You see, my interest is in principle, and principle won a great victory here. No stinking deal that has been cobbled together in the last few weeks has a damn thing to do with the actual problem that brings us to this juncture in the first place, namely, a federal government so broke and in debt it endangers our national security and culture.
And Plan B was an abandonment of principle too far. First, Boehner was willing to "close loopholes." Then it was putting off debt-ceiling discussions. With this latest non-starter it was stepping into the realm of actual rate hikes.
I'm proud of those who resisted persuasion. Let's get an entire Congress full of such types.
You never compromise with Democrats. Certainly not where tax policy is concerned.
Never.
Did I say never?
And now that John Boehner has been shown to have squish where a solid core should be, perhaps we can realistically look forward to his being replaced.
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