Idiots, Congress and Repeating Thyself

Somewhere in Heaven, Mark Twain is chuckling between cigar puffs as scribes like me keep trotting out his famous line about politics: "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself." After twisting countless arms, Speaker John Boehner (R) finally got his debt-ceiling bill passed in the House Friday night. On cue (and as predicted), the Senate killed it two hours later. Elapsed time: one week. And now we're back to square one. As Steve Benen noted, Boehner never made a serious attempt at policymaking. The exercise was mostly designed to save his political hide. "The proposal needed to be bipartisan, but was written in secret to be as partisan as possible. The proposal needed to be sensible, but would instead force us to go through all of this again in six months and would mandate approval of a constitutional amendment in both chambers before House Republicans would allow the United States to pay its bills. Think about that for a moment. Elected GOP lawmakers have come to believe extortion is a legitimate tool to get Congress to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. When I talk about Republicans shredding the American political process, this is what I'm talking about." Which reminds me of another, even more appropriate Twain quote: "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class ― except Congress."