Helpful hint: Shutting down government as political stunt is not competent governance

I think at this point any political reporter who does not specifically point out that the Republicans are flat-out incompetent on this whole debt ceiling and deficits and no taxes evah and screw our debts nonsense needs to just give it up and start a new career. Please. And if you love your country, sooner would be better than later.

You will note, in this latest story of silly intra-Republican machinations and self-fluffing over all those deficits that somehow only started the day President Black Guy entered the big office with the curved walls, that the GOP has decided they have a very limited set of fiscal tools at their disposal. Basically they can pout a lot, or they can pout even more, but the entire argument over whether or not to send the United States of America into default over the "debt ceiling," screwing the economy and a very large number of our own citizens, rests entirely on the question of just how big of a knock-down, screaming, rolling-on-the-floor tantrum is the right amount in order to feel better about themselves:

GOP officials said more than half of their members are prepared to allow default unless Obama agrees to dramatic cuts he has repeatedly said he opposes. Many more members, including some party leaders, are prepared to shut down the government to make their point. House Speaker John Boehner 'may need a shutdown just to get it out of their system,' said a top GOP leadership adviser. 'We might need to do that for member-management purposes ' so they have an endgame and can show their constituents they're fighting.'

Let's just reflect, here. We're currently facing a "debt ceiling" standoff, which now coincides with a slightly delayed "fiscal cliff," which was delayed from the previous "fiscal cliff," which was a delayed reaction to the spectacularly silly "Super Committee," which was a dumbass, make-work delay of the previous "debt ceiling" fight, which was the previous version of this thing, right here, that we're doing now in which a collection of pompous but spectacularly inept/incompetent Republican nincompoops demand that we cut spending on certain people and programs in ways that the nation, and the Congress, and even most of they themgoddamnselves have all repeatedly rejected over and over but which still hold such ideological sway that screwing up a nice, fat chunk of the entire national economy seems a pretty reasonable thing to do if it will yet again "make a point" to the mean president about how they, despite not being in charge of things, should still get to be in charge of all things, or if it will at least get some of the bile surrounding their previously wounded fee-fees "out of their system."

(Continue reading below the fold.)