More Would Blame Democrats For Government (Not a) Shut-Down Than Republicans, 29%-23%

With the rest, I guess, saying they don't know or they blame both.

When the GOP breaks faith with the base in order to gain a political advantage by appearing moderate, the only argument they can offer the base is that "we had to; politics required it."

As you know, I'm not exactly immune to that line of reasoning -- I do believe in some cases discretion is the better part of valor.

But this is a fact-based inquiry; it depends on the actual facts. "We had to do it for political reasons" is not and never can be an all-purpose get out of jail free card for selling out key ideological principles. In some cases, they may be unachievable, and therefore it may be (to people who think like me) acceptable to take the half loaf of bread instead of losing the whole loaf.

But in other cases -- and this seems to be one of those "other cases" -- politics is in fact on the ideological warriors' side, so the "politics made me do it" excuse doesn't fly.

Just putting that out there: That I believe (and I think a lot of conservatives believe) that there is not a particularly strong political reason to cave on spending just to avoid a shut-down, and if the GOP caves in the face of this not-threatening threat, it will be perceived as not being forced on the GOP but rather what they always secretly wished to do anyway.

Confirmatory Poll: Rasumussen has a reinforcing finding -- 58% of the public would prefer a "partial" shut-down (which is what a shut-down is) rather than see Congress spend at last year's levels.

The GOP has a relatively strong hand here, or at least a historically strong one. The public is rarely in the genuine (as opposed to gestural) mood for real (as opposed to hypothetical) spending cuts.

The GOP cannot act as if it's business as usual because the business here is facing a rare opportunity for windfall.

Again, I know I'm personally not going to be on board for yet another GOP cave.

If they cave again, what good are they? What is the point?

posted by Ace at 01:07 PM

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