Blackmail

On a personal level I’ve always felt that my reaction to blackmail would be something like “OK, do your worst.”Never having been in that position, this feeling is has to be based on intellectual, rather than emotional considerations. In the cold light of day there is always the likelihood of subsequent demands, so it seems more practical to get the matter over with quickly.

Blackmail is what Congressional Tea Party types are now inflicting on the nation, including most of their Republican colleagues. For the first time in our history a price has been put on agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. And a steep price at that! We are all vulnerable to default.  

What the Monster was to Frankenstein the Tea Party is to what remains of traditional Congressional Republicans. Their followers can only vote once, but by God they vote even in them there primaries. Three Senate seats may have been lost to the party in Delaware, Nevada and Alaska by the Tea nation. But just take a look at the House. The big guys know where their bread is buttered and they don’t tolerate heresy, as John McCain has just learned.

Until now I have followed the minutia of this debt ceiling tussle with great interest. But the time has come that I don’t give a damn whose plan is being voted on in which House of Congress. What should have been, as it always has, a routine legislative exercise has been turned into a likely disaster by a minority gang of know nothings who won’t play the game unless it’s by their rules.

My guess a few days ago was that cooler heads would prevail. That seems unlikely now, unless a bipartisan Congressional majority gives the president a new clean debt ceiling until 2013, with budgetary considerations to be made at another time. If not the nation faces default. In this case Barack Obama will have no reasonable alternative to exercising his authority by unilaterally raising the debt ceiling. The legality of such action is at least strongly implied by the 14^th Amendment.

Not to do so would be unforgivable. Legal opinion is uncertain on this subject. But the process itself would take time and allow everybody to save face. As to the verdict I repeat from last week’s effort: Wall Street and big money don’t want default. Adversity can make the strangest bedfellows.