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Boehner
is playing the Democrats
by E.J. Dionne
Nixon espoused what he called "the
madman theory." It's a negotiating approach that induces
the other side to believe you are capable of dangerously irrational
actions and leads it to back down
to avoid the wreckage your rage might let loose.
House Republicans are pursuing their own madman theory in budget
negotiations, with a clever twist:
Speaker John Boehner is casting himself as the reasonable man fully
prepared to reach a deal to avoid
a government shutdown. But he also has to satisfy a band of "wild-eyed
bomb-throwing freshmen,"
as he characterized new House members in a Wall Street Journal
interview last week by way of
comparing them fondly to his younger self.
Thus are negotiators for Obama and Senate Democrats forced to deal not
only with Republican leaders
in the room but also with a menacing specter outside its confines. As
"responsible" public officials,
Democrats are asked to make additional concessions just to keep the
bomb-throwers at bay.
This is the same approach Reagan used to get elected in 1980. He let on that he was just crazy enough
to 'glass' Iran over those hostages and after Jimmy Carter's "let's save their lives" approach (that the
American whore media ridiculed) Reagan's "John Wayne act" looked pretty good to some people.
But Reagan was lying the whole time. Sure, he publically threatened to glass Iran,
but behind the scenes he was secretly ARMING the torrorists.
That was a massive global war crime, but they had a secret weapon.
And our scared mouse Democrats let them get away with it.
And to this day, nobody mentions Iran Contra ...because we are mice, not men.
