The awesome Juanita Jean caught this quote from Texas Republican Congressvarmint Michael Burgess. Appearing on CNN, Burgess reflected that the overwhelming, server-crashing response to the opening day of Obamacare sign-ups was really no big deal:
“I think if you subtract out members of Congress and their staff and reporters who called in those first 48 hours the numbers will be considerably lower,” Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), who is also a medical doctor, told CNN. “We will have an opportunity to dissect these numbers in our subcommittee of oversight investigations later this month or next month.”
Um, yeah. I’m sure members of Congress and their staff, up to their eyeballs in government shutdown drama, were just spending all of their time trying to check the Obamacare website ad nauseum all day long.
All of which illustrates how the Republican Party is still deeply wracked by the same denial which cost them the 2012 election.
Paul Krugman made an interesting observation about the long-term damage the GOP has done to itself:
It goes back to something Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo used to say — that Washington is, in effect, wired for Republicans. Ever since Reagan, the Beltway has treated Republicans as the natural party of government. Sunday talk shows would feature a preponderance of Republicans even if Democrats held the White House and one or both houses of Congress. John McCain was featured on those shows so often you would think he won in 2008.
And there was a general presumption of Republican competence. It’s hard to believe now, but Bush was treated as a highly effective leader who knew what he was doing right up to Katrina, while Clinton — now viewed with such respect — was treated as a bungling interloper for much of his presidency. Even in the last few years there was a rush to canonize Paul Ryan as a superwonk, when it was quite obvious if you looked that politics aside, he was just incompetent at number-crunching.
But I think the last two years have finally killed that presumption. It wasn’t just that Romney lost — his shock, the obvious degree to which his campaign was deluded, was an eye-opener. And now the antics of the Boehner bumblers.
Suddenly the old Will Rogers line — I’m not a member of any organized political party,I’m a Democrat — has lost its sting; the upper hand is on the other foot. And that’s going to color narratives and shape campaigns for a long time.
When Republican members of Congress grandstand about closed World War II memorials and shuttered national parks when they’re the ones responsible for closing the government in the first place, they look ridiculous. These PR stunts play well to the Fox News/right-wing rantosphere, but out here in the real world where we breathe oxygen not right-wing cray-cray, the sane people wonder if they’ll ever reattach themselves to reality.
And folks like Michael Burgess claiming the millions trying to access the Obamacare website were just members of Congress and the news media? Not helping, dude.
Southern Beale 
K-Thug: “The upper hand is on the other foot.” Just brill.
Irrelevant to them. All that matters is they gain victory NAOW so they can undermine the future.
Yutsy, I am incapable of wrapping my brain around their … perspective? worldview? They baffle me utterly. All I can do is laugh and point and shrug despairingly.
Irrelevant to them, perhaps, but relevant to the rest of us. If the Washington Press Corpse stops carrying their water- and there are some positive signs in that direction- they’re going to be in a lot of hurt electorally. Yes, they can do a lot of damage now, but I honestly think they aren’t going to do irreparable harm to the nation before 2014.
I think we overestimate how much traction you get with the larger electorate by having the DC press your pocket. There was probably no more plugged-in a candidate than John McCain in 2008, yet he took a huge electoral pasting when it came time to count the votes.
As usual, the media is on board the Republicans; talking points. They want everything ” balanced”. But the weighing scale is heavily on the truth’s side, as it should be… unfortunately, for the sake of having a balanced weighing scale, the media piles up on the other side with lies and misinformation, unchallenged, to keep the weighing scale ” balanced. ” And it works. now, so many people think it’s the fault of both parties.
Was his making that announcement suppose to help show why Obamacare is not working? All it shows is how desparate the republicans are to make sure Obama fails. There attempts have been ongoing since 2008. Why? Why is it in 2013 they can’t accept the fact that there are black men women and children with brains. Obama happens to be one of them. And for the ones that say he isn’t black. Yes he is. No matter what race you stir in the pot. We are black. Always have been, and always will be. Once again, we are all the same if you look on the inside. Once the oxygen hits the blood stream, we all bleed red! Besides, how many non-african americans are you hurting?
Ah YES, WE get it and always have. Here in the East TN Wing of those of us who are damned disgusted have been subjected to endless articles quoting ALL our GOP/TEA/suck ups to the Kochs who could not wait to collect all those ‘campaign contributions’ for supporting this TREASON, the blatant act of trying to destroy our economy. They have violate our Constitution and it was, planned ahead, with the ONLY real goal they have got. TO DESTROY OUR PRESIDENT. I called Jimmy Duncan’s offices, and within 2 hours after my complaint calls, I received a 9-paragraph letter…online…(I didn’t provide my e-mail address…he has me in his files as ‘complainer’). His reasons for joining the TEAs were empty, ignorant, and again, blaming our President. People, we have got to encourage good, intelligent, motivated, compassionate candidates to run against him and the other millionaires here…Black, Blackburn, Alexander, Corker, and HASLAM. We must find courageous leaders who can LEAD and help Tennessee recover.
I don’t normally….well, actually I don’t EVER watch FauxNewsCorpse….but the other night in a hotel room I surfed across it on my way to the Weather Channel and there was good ol’ Mike Huckabee. He said that if Republicans are right and Obamacare is destined to be a collossal failure (as he believes), they should just stand aside and watch it implode. They should stop threatening to shut the government and not raise the debt ceiling. They should just wait and watch the Obamacare trainwreck. I thought this pointed out the reason for their desperate antics – they KNOW it will succeed and they KNOW Democrats will get the credit for bringing U.S. social & health programs up to the level of fellow OECD members like Australia or Chile.