Excerpts from "Those Reckless Republicans"

Absolutely incredible op-ed by the Washington Post's Katrina vanden Heuvel:

Those Reckless Republicans

Excerpt #1, regarding the loathsome imbecile Eric Cantor:

"This Republican Party is addled by an extremist ideology and cankered by a vengeful partisanship. In a time of national crisis, it is locked into ideological litmus tests — no new taxes — and opposed to anything the “Kenyan, socialist” president might propose.

This makes the routine difficult and the necessary impossible. Republicans threaten to blow up the world economy by refusing to lift the debt limit without getting drastic cuts in the deficit. Puffed up with locker-room bravado, they set a high bar — more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years, a dollar or more for every dollar hike of the debt limit.

But Cantor detonates the talks because, in fact, Republicans won’t negotiate on how to reach their goal."

Excerpt #2, regarding the toadish Mitch McConnell:

"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell epitomizes the irresponsibility of today’s Republican Party. He is proudly and reflexively anti-anything Obama. McConnell has cheered House Republican efforts to gut funding for the financial regulatory agencies, arguing that “anything we can do to slow down, deter or impede their ability to engage in this kind of oppressive overregulation would be good
for the country.”

This Tom Toles cartoon gets it just right:

America Held Hostage to GOP ideological extremists