As this is written, Ted Cruz is still filibustering.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A couple of observations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the one hand<\/strong>, a\u00a0friend of mine – a disaffected Republican and Ron Paul supporter – snarked something like “Hey, Ted Cruz is filibustering Obamacare!\u00a0 Western Civilization will be saved!\u00a0 Oh, wait – no, we’re still screwed”.\u00a0<\/p>\n So let me get this straight; when some <\/em>people launch quixotic grandstanding windmill-tilts against big government, taxation, spending and creeping statism, it’s a statement of rock-solid principle, but when others do it for the same reasons, it’s snark-fodder?\u00a0<\/p>\n I’ll have to chew on that one for a while.<\/p>\n Grandstanding<\/strong>:\u00a0 As Michael Medved pointed out yesterday, the filibuster is<\/em>, tactically, pointless.\u00a0 The Senate – and its majority of Democrats – will support the President.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0<\/p>\n Politically?\u00a0 Medved among others also had a point:\u00a0 Obama wants <\/em>the government to shut down.\u00a0 He benefits when he (and a compliant media) can pin pain on smaller government.\u00a0 And while the sequester was a complete squib for him, a shutdown would <\/em>provide an endless parade of calumny for the media, his Praetorian Guard, to force-feed the “for the children” voter segment.\u00a0<\/p>\n And that’s not the only reason a shutdown benefits Obama.<\/p>\n The Great Diversion<\/strong>:\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 Obama’s been in office almost five years.\u00a0 What does he have to show for it?<\/p>\n And even if you get all of those out of the way, what is Obama left with?\u00a0 Obamacare – a law with some popular provisions that needed to happen via one mechanism or another (portability, dealing with pre-existing conditions) but is, as a package, about as popular as mandatory ice-water enemas.\u00a0<\/p>\n What would better serve Obama’s purposes than to divert attention away from everything he and his Administration have done<\/em>?<\/p>\n A government shutdown, I suspect, strikes this blog’s audience (as it does me) at first blush as a great idea.\u00a0 But it plays right into Obama’s hands.<\/p>\n So Cruz should stop filibustering and take a nap – right?<\/p>\n\n