Mitch McConnell channels Dick Cheney

  There's so much to despise about Mitch McConnell, it's hard to know where to start. It's a little overwhelming. So let's start with something small.
  One little savory sleight-of-hand...
  Remember when Dick Cheney went on Meet the Press and said that the NY Times was reporting (that very morning) that there were WMDs in Iraq (they were importing "aluminum tubes" supposedly used in centrifuges to create nuclear weapons). The story was leaked to the Times by Cheney. And published just in time for him to quote them on NBC.
    Cheney: "Specifically aluminum tubes. There's a story in The New York Times this morning-this is-I don't-and I want to attribute The Times. I don't want to talk about, obviously, specific intelligence sources, but it's now public that, in fact, he has been seeking to acquire, and we have been able to intercept and prevent him from acquiring through this particular channel, the kinds of tubes that are necessary to build a centrifuge. And the centrifuge is required to take low-grade uranium and enhance it into highly enriched uranium, which is what you have to have in order to build a bomb. This is a technology he was working on back, say, before the Gulf War. And one of the reasons it's of concern, Tim, is, you know, we know about a particular shipment. We've intercepted that. We don't know what else-what other avenues he may be taking out there, what he may have already acquired. We do know he's had four years without any inspections at all in Iraq to develop that capability."
  Yesterday Mitch McConnell cited Standard & Poor's lowering its rating of US debt as a sign we're headed for trouble. Even if you took their report seriously (the market didn't), isn't it funny that the reason they cite for the lower rating is the hostage-taking of the Republcans. I mean if McConnell would just STFU and act like he's the minority leader of the Senate for crying out loud, there wouldn't be a crisis and there would be nothing for S&P to get nervous about.
    McConnell: "I can speak for myself. I began our discussion by pointing out that, when Standard & Poor's says that they're about to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, that's a pretty big red flag. And also when we know our debt now is the size of our economy we begin to look a lot like Greece."
  What the Republicans are doing shouldn't work. They are being so open about their willingness to sacrifice the world economy so they can gut Medicare. It's sooo insane. It's enough to cause another country to declare war, don't you think? Justifiably. I mean what's our excuse? Isn't the Republican Party part of the US? If the US government trashes the world economy, isn't the US responsible?
  We expect we'll muddle through, I guess. What will we be expected to muddle through next year?