Oh hush and eat your peas, Sen. McCain

According to POLITICO, Sen. John McCain isn't impressed with President Obama’s negotiating style. (Cue the cheap shot.) “Eat your peas, what kind of language is that? Walking out of a meeting? A lot of us say what would Ronald Reagan do? I do not think he would be behaving like that,” McCain said during a TV interview. Actually, President Reagan reacted almost exactly the way as President Obama has. "The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets," Reagan said in 1981. Sound familiar? Oh and Congress raised the debt ceiling three times during the Reagan era (1981, 1985, and 1987).

On a roll, McCain continued: "What is [Obama's] plan? He has not come forward with a specific plan the American people and Congress can consider.” Actually, the president has put forward multiple plans to the relevant negotiating parties. Also, senator, the simplistic "show me yours and I'll show you mine" approach isn't how real negotiations work. Moreover, senator, it's not up to the American people to evaluate the debt ceiling proposals. That's your job, remember? Still, McCain, unlike some members of his party, is not crazy. He well knows the importance of raising the debt ceiling and thinks it will happen, probably at the 11th hour. “Please remember the words of Chairman Mao, it is always darkest before it is totally black,” McCain cautioned. Um, wha'? McCain probably meant to say, "It's always darkest before the dawn." Never mind that Mao never uttered the phrase (or McCain's tortured formulation of it). It's actually an old English proverb probably popularized by historian Thomas Fuller who in 1650 wrote, "It is always darkest just before the Day dawneth."

But I digress. Here's an simple suggestion: Just hush and "eat your peas," senator, before the hole you're digging gets any deeper. Thanks in advance from a grateful nation.