July 14, 2011 09:14 PM UTC

Things Fall Apart

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE (via Pols FP Editor “Rork”): It appears that Sen. McConnell is correct in guessing that Republicans would receive most of the blame for forcing the U.S. to default on its debts. From The Hill comes very bad news for Republicans:

Voters would blame congressional Republicans more than the Obama administration if the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling is not raised, according to a new poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University. Forty-eight percent of those polled said Republicans would be mainly responsible if the debt ceiling is not raised, compared to 34 percent who said the Obama administration. Twenty percent of Republicans would hold their party mainly responsible, and 49 percent of the independent voters both parties are trying to attract would put more responsibility on the GOP. [Pols Emphasis] Thirty-three percent of independents would put more responsibility on the administration.

President Obama has succeeded in appearing the be the voice of reason. After putting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts on the table, he has only asked for minor concessions in revenue increases that have wide populist appeal:

Most voters (67 percent) also aligned with Democrats in wanting tax hikes on “the wealthy and corporations” as part of a deficit-reduction package. Republicans have said they would agree to no tax hikes as part of a deal.

______

Los Angeles Times:

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader who has proposed a fallback plan that would likely ensure the $14.3-trillion debt limit would be raised, said in a radio interview that a default by the United States could critically damage his party heading into the 2012 elections. [Pols emphasis]

A default, McConnell told talk show host Laura Ingraham, “destroys your brand.”

…McConnell said that at this point the GOP had two choices: Either make a bad deal – from their perspective – with Obama or take the country into default, which, McConnell suggested would do even more damage to the party. He compared the situation to 1995, when the GOP forced a government shutdown.

“We know that’s going to happen. Just like we knew shutting down the government in 1995 was not going to work for us,” he said. “It helped Bill Clinton get reelected. I refuse to help Barack Obama get reelected.”

Politico:

Even the president seems confused about exactly who he’s bargaining with on the GOP side – testily declaring to Cantor that negotiations with Boehner are meant to represent discussions with all Republicans. Obama has clearly targeted Cantor as his bitter enemy in negotiations, abruptly walking out of a critical meeting Wednesday evening after dressing down Cantor.

The Republican presidential field also hardly has a unified position on the debt ceiling.

That leaves Republicans without a dominant messenger – someone like Newt Gingrich or O’Neill – who can counter the bully pulpit of the president. The risk for Republicans now is that they’ll be seen as a gaggle of bullies…

Between the power struggle pitting Speaker John Boehner against Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Cantor’s unproductive abrasiveness, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan to short-circuit actual opposition to raising the debt ceiling in exchange for multiple wholly symbolic grandstand opportunities, it really is anybody’s guess as to what Republicans actually want out of this–except to exact political damage on the President, a goal drifting perilously close to backfire territory as it becomes the increasing focus of their rhetoric (and as regular Pols readers know, we had a feeling this was coming).

With that said, Sen. McConnell seems to have the most lucid view of what’s really going on, and the growing threat to the GOP as their negotiating position in a debate they demanded–and in which they thought they had the high ground–falters. And that’s why McConnell’s actions, setting aside the bellicose rhetoric, more or less amount to sounding the retreat.