Some conservatives seem to overlook the fact that the Republicans in Congress do not have a lot of leverage. They may not always use what little leverage they do have strategically well, such as control of the Appropriations Committee in the House, but practically speaking they only control the House and its committee
The Republicans are also not very good at controlling the liberal media narrative, which is usually the talking points right off the White House daily briefing memo. So to cause another "federal government shutdown" using the power of the Appropriations Committee would once again be blamed on the Republicans.
Anything that looks like a "government shutdown", walks like a shutdown or smells like a shutdown will be the Republicans' fault because the Democrats know how to work the liberal media, and the media respond like lapdogs.
Even when ObamaCare became a fiasco and the liberal media realized they and the rest of the country had been deceived by the Democrats' lies about ObamaCare, some of the liberal leaning commentators still tried to only slightly criticize the Democrats without completely throwing them under the proverbial bus.
When it became apparent that the warnings about ObamaCare by Senator Ted Cruz and others were correct, the liberal media even tried to help the White House and the administration to lower expectations. If expectations get any lower they will be six feet under.
A majority of the public also believes that the Republicans do not have an alternative to ObamaCare. Another big lie! H.R. 2300 - or a version of it -has been in existence since 2009 when ObamaCare was passed. But since the Republicans did not have the sense to unite behind it, and they did not control the House nor the Senate, the media noise drowned it out.
Only now is H.R. 2300 getting some attention because of the ObamaCare fiasco, especially the lies that Obama and all the leading Democrats repeated over and over and over and over. "If you like your plan you can keep it." Of course, now the Democrats are saying this did not mean the costs would not go up, and besides, it's the insurance companies' fault. Or as David Axelrod said recently, the only mistake the president made was to talk in absolutes. Right!
The deck may be stacked against the Republicans, but we are not stupid!
In other words, forget the budget battle. Start the war of 2014 for control of both houses of Congress. Start crafting the political narrative now with the ammunition the Democrats have created right in front of our eyes:
The painful facts about ObamaCare
The IRS targeting scandal
The Benghazi cover-up
The real unemployment rate
The economic recovery that isn't ... and the list goes on!
Republicans will not win the war for control of Congress just focusing on the Democrats' lies and failures. They must have a sharpened message, a unified image instead of the divided one they have now, and some bold solutions that they can clearly articulate to the electorate, some of which is politically and intellectually challenged.
Other than that, the Republicans just need to fill its huge leadership void, and go on the offense instead of constantly being on defense.
