Dems Promoting Government Shutdown...to Their Peril

When Democrats experience some political success their emotional development just stops...and they think the conditions that led to that success will continue forever. How else do you explain this?

A high-ranking aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told chiefs of staff of Democratic lawmakers that a government shutdown is more likely than not, according to attendees.

Speaking at a regular meeting of the top aides to House Democrats, Pelosi’s floor director, Jerry Hartz, offered, unprompted, his assessment that the odds favor inaction before the government runs out of money, sources said.

That became the focal point of the meeting, sources said, with the other aides asking only questions about “the possibility of a government shutdown and the logistics” — i.e., what it would mean for their offices and government services — according to one chief of staff who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity.

The aide said the message of a likely shutdown did not appear geared toward ginning up the staffers for political purposes.

“It was genuine,” the aide said.

Uh no, it was not. No Republicans are promoting a government shutdown. It's a figment of Pelosi's fevered imagination and it's an effort to get people rattled thinking their Social Security payments will go away or they won't be able to go on the reindeer rides in Jellystone National Park.

Democrats won political gains when the government shut down in 1995 because the GOP mishandled the issue and the public wasn't yet sick of bloated government. That's not going to happen this time. People went to the polls by the millions in 2010 specifically because they want smaller government and the prospect of a shutdown frankly sounds pretty good right now.

Add to all of that the nonsense going on in Wisconsin where pampered public workers are throwing a mass temper tantrum because they're being asked to contribute something to their bloated health and retirement benefits, and you have all the makings of a revolt against government and government workers that could really get ugly.

Although GOP leadership is not promoting a shutdown, there are millions of voters that would welcome it.  Polling is starting to show a genuine backlash against what's going on with the union thugs in Wisconsin, and if Democrats push for a shutdown thinking they'll make great political gains, that effort will backfire as well.

Nancy Pelosi's election as Minority Leader may end up being the best thing that ever happened to the GOP.  She mishandled the Speaker's job into a crushing defeat for her party, and may now finish them off with this latest folly.