Watching Conservatives Twist in the Wind While Hanging Over the Fiscal Cliff:
Doughy torture supporter and Washington Post scribbler Marc Thiessen makes a prediction in his latest "column" (if by "column," you mean, "the ignorant ape-bellows of a paid liar who wiped his ass with the Constitution when he worked for George W. Bush"). Regarding the negotiations over the "fiscal cliff," Thiessen writes that Democrats are making a "major miscalculation. First, their ability to blame the GOP depends on their ability to convince Americans that Republican intransigence is to blame for any failure to reach a year-end deal." You got that? Democrats will have to convince the nation that Republicans are to blame for taking the Wile E. Coyote fall.

And Thiessen might be right in assuming that if, in the very same issue of the Post, this poll didn't exist. The question asked was "If an agreement is not reached, who do you think would be more to blame: (the Republicans in Congress) or (President Obama)?" 53% would blame the Republicans. 27% would blame the President. Those numbers are so vastly different even with 62% of Republicans blaming the President (a third of Republicans blame their own party or both the GOP and Obama). So good luck changing the minds of a quarter of the public.

Of course, who else would one turn to for words of wisdom on this issue than the guy who was the director of the National Economic Council for George W. Bush from 2002-2007, the years leading up to our financial damnation? That'd be crisis-enabler Keith Hennessey, and  Thiessen quotes approvingly from his Wall Street Journal editorial about how Obama doesn't want a recession in his second term (to which one can only respond, "Duh.")

Want real fun? Read some of Hennessey's blog posts from the end of the Bush reign. Like the one where he declares that the debt "is not the real threat" to the economy. Remember when Republicans believed that? That would have been when Republicans were completely running things. Good times. Read his arguments against extending unemployment insurance and against passing the Children's Health Insurance Program. And understand that Hennessey was a key negotiator in favor of both Bush tax cuts (he worked for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott in 2001). Looking to Hennessey for his opinion on the current attempts to make a deal on the budget is like asking Ted Bundy for advice on creating your OKCupid profile.

The funny thing is that, even though he says that "only Democrats are saying they want to go over the cliff," Thiessen is part of a group of conservative "thinkers" (and that word is used as loosely as whiskey shits at 3 a.m.) who say, "Fuck it. Let's all get in the barrel." Just two weeks ago, Thiessen wrote that we should just take the plunge rather than have the GOP give in on raising taxes on people who wouldn't notice that their taxes have been raised unless they got a text from their accountants telling them so. See, Thiessen believes that letting all the tax cuts expire would strengthen the Republicans' hand and teach voters a lesson: "Americans had a choice this November, and they voted for bigger government. Rather shielding voters from the consequences of their decisions, let them pay for it." So cutting programs that benefit large numbers of Americans isn't making them pay for it?

Of course, what voters voted for was the promise of higher taxes on the wealthy and infrastructure spending. Of course, right-wingers want them punished for it.