Hey, he didn't say that, you tell me. Well, those were not his words, but that's exactly what he said.
Mitch McConnell, thoroughly chastened over having reluctantly gone along with Ted Cruz and House Republicans on the recent shutdown, gives his confession and repentance to the Beltway media as personified by Bob Schieffer on CBS, and makes a promise that Republicans will not bring about any more shutdowns.
The downhome Kentucky saying about the mule kick is very charming, I guess, but here is the problem: When you control one house of Congress, spending measures cannot be passed unless your side agrees to support them. This is called leverage in negotiations. Now, leverage in negotiations only means anything as long as you are willing to walk away in the event you cannot get the other side to acceptable terms. Everyone familiar with negotiation understands the absolute weakest negotiator is one who is afraid to walk away without a deal.
You absolutely have to have that car, and the dealer knows it? Do you think the price is going to go up or down. Up, of course, because the dealer knows you want the car so badly you will pay the higher price.
By promising that under no circumstances will there ever be another government shutdown, what McConnell has done is telegraph to Harry Reid that he will absolutely, under no circumstances, walk away from the table without a deal. You don't see Reid doing that. He doesn't care if the government shuts down, and he is certainly not going to give in to McConnell's demands to see that it won't.
By the way, notice how Schieffer cleverly affirms McConnell's surrender instinct by treating him as Mr. Reasonable while wondering aloud how he will ever deal with that insane Ted Cruz or those horrible Tea Party people who are "going nuts" and threatening to primary him. This is classic. It's how the media helped turn John McCain into mush. They pet him on the head when he's a good little Republican who goes along with "the way things are done in this town," and they make it clear that if he ever steps out of line like that icky Ted Cruz, he will lose their favor.
So there you have it. Democrats already know Republicans will not stand up to them again on budgetary matters, because Republicans are too afraid of the shutdown Democrats will gladly permit if that's what it takes to get their way. There will be no spending sanity. There will be no changes to the tax code (unless it's to raise rates, of course). There will be nothing done about ObamaCare. There will be nothing done about entitlements. Democrats refuse, and Republicans are afraid to fight.
God bless America.
