Behold the Stupid

The teevee pundits are guessing what the House Republicans will do about the upcoming debt ceiling fight. But there is no point in speculating; we know, in general, what they will do. They will do the most damnfool stupid thing that could possibly be done, whatever that is.

Alex Pareene writes,

“Leverage” only works against rational people. A large number of House Republicans aren’t just “nihilists,” willing to blow up the economy to get what they want, they’re plain morons who have impossible and horrible goals and no clue whatsoever how to reach them.

Yeah, pretty much. At The Atlantic, Molly Ball interviews recently retired Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, and even he admits there’s way too much stupid among the House Republicans.

I don’t know what their objective is. If it was to deny the speakership to Boehner and hand it to Mrs. Pelosi, I don’t know how their cause would have been furthered. If it’s to force the vote to a second ballot to make some demands, well, who the hell do these people think they are? Twelve out of 233, and they’re making demands? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

I have to say that handing the speakership to Nancy Pelosi as a strategy among the baggers (assuming it was a strategy; they may be too stupid to comprehend the meaning of “consequence”) reminds me of the “progressives” who wanted Mitt Romney to win to punish President Obama and “send a message.” Stupid is not exclusive to the Right. But the Stupid Caucus among House Republicans is taking Stupid to new levels. For example …

You look at the very beginning of the last Congress, H.R. 1, the omnibus, there were hundreds of amendments from the stupid to the sublime. One was offered to defund the president’s teleprompter. Another was to defund the electrical upgrades needed to bring the White House up to code. But Boehner’s deal was, OK, go for it, let people participate. There was an expectation that, given the opportunity to improve the bill, they would then vote for the bill. But beginning with that bill there have been 20 to 50 members who will make adjustments to the bill that guarantee you’re not going to get one Democrat to vote for it, and then they still vote against the bill themselves and deny Boehner the 218 votes he needs to bargain with.

Some of what LaTourette says in the interview is bull, but one gets the impression that even he is disgusted with the degree of Stupid among House Republicans.

Back to Alex Pareene, who describes the failed “coup” against John Boehner:

If, say, Eric Cantor had actually wanted the job, he could’ve organized the coup and succeeded. But Eric Cantor didn’t want the job. The bigger problem, then, was a lack of intelligence. The crazy caucus failed spectacularly at all aspects of the attempted conspiracy, from planning to execution. They waited until the last minute to approach potential allies, failed to count their own votes correctly, and didn’t even all figure out who they were supposed to vote for instead. Their plan was apparently to embarrass Boehner into resigning, in favor of … someone to be decided later. Candidates voted for by plotters included departing Rep. Allen West and former Comptroller David Walker, who are basically the opposites of one another.

For more stupid, see “GOP Rep: ‘It’s About Time’ We Had Another Government Shut Down’.” For a ray of hope, see Josh Marshall, “A Losing Game.”