Two Munchkins Grow Up

Two Graduates of the Lollipop Guild

My sincere congratulations to Paul Ryan and John Boehner! Ryan has compromised on an agreement with Senator Patty Murray (D. Wash.) for the budget to go forward for the next little while. It's not a great deal, but it's a deal. And that's enough to send the tea-partiers into a frenzy. They don't like it, so it must be OK.

Ryan must have got a message through his head to abandon the tea-party extremism and become a leader of his party. That is a typical opportunity for a failed VP candidate (Palin the exception that proves the rule.) He is also claiming his love for Ayn Rand is all an urban legend and I couldn't be happier!

Of course Ryan's already moved the goalpost so far right off the field they are now playing Canadian football (oops, no slam intended on Sen. Cruz!) But Sen. Murray was able to get a few things in and more things protected to get the deal done. There are no new taxes (even if sorely needed from those who have benefited the most from our governmental system - all those Frankensteins of corporate persons created by the government they now control by their monstrous dollars.) It's all called "revenue enhancement" by shifting some burdens of paying for government services.

And Boeher graduates to manhood because he finally stood up to the special interests posing as tea parties. As reported by Politco:

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Boehner (R-Ohio) accused outside conservative groups of “using our members and they’re using the American people for their own goals.”

Yeah, baby! It doesn't get better than that! The Speaker of the House actually saying something that is absolutely true and has been true for some time about the movers and shakers in control of the Republican Party. We need more of that, Mr. Speaker!

The third member of the Lollipop Guild, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, can't seem to graduate as he is up for re-election running scared from a tea-party challenge on the right, a credible challenge on the just-barely-left from a Democrat, and the fact that Kentucky, with its functioning state exchange, is one of the poster children for the success of the ACA!

The tea-party/Limbaugh right is frothing at the mouth. They now consign Ryan, Boehner, along with the anti-Capitalist Pope, to the lowest depths of Heck. Not quite as far down as the President, but next they'll probably be shaking hands with him and as the President shook hands with Raul Castro, you know what that means. Yep, "Palling around with Communists."

UPDATE
December 12, 2013
We now have actual video of Boehner denouncing the tea party. He doesn't mention it by name, but that's clearly what he's talking about. We may mark this week as the moment in history that the Republican Party's modern coalition, that unholy alliance of the mainstream conservatives with the radical right and the tea party, fell apart.