Senatorial hobgoblins: Consistency? What a silly old-fashioned concept.
by digby
The Manly Right Wingnuts of the Senate are making it clear who's boss. And it isn't the old warhorses of the GOP --- or even those pansies in the House leadership.
"Let me be clear. I don't trust the Republicans," Cruz said, casting it as a broader distrust of a government that has rung up more than $16 trillion in debt. "And I don't trust the Democrats. And I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don't trust the Republicans and the Democrats because it is leadership in both parties that has gotten us in this mess."
Who's he talking about? John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and the rest of the house GOP leadership who he believes are going to give away the store if the Senate allows them to reconcile the budgets the two houses passed in a conference committee. He and Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Mike Lee want to force them to agree ahead of time not to raise the debt ceiling.
In other words, these four think the House Republicans are too soft. What that makes them is something we aren't allowed to talk about on the internets.
Old timers like John McCain and Susan Collins are all flummoxed. They point out that the GOP has been complaining for years that the Dems refuse to do a budget through the normal process and now they're prepared to do it. Cruz and company merely laugh at such old fashioned nonsense. Silly old man. Consistency is for leu--zurs.
Update: Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly has a full analysis of the strategy and motivation. Let's just say that the idea that these guys are "independent" in the sense that they will work with Democrats is wildly off the mark.