Excerpts
SUMMARY: New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's top political news, including the lack of progress being made to end the government shutdown, the upcoming debt ceiling fight and how recent dysfunction is set to amplify the nation's poor opinion of Congress.
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DAVID BROOKS: I assume, by the time we die, there will be a (shutdown) resolution.
So, we must be closer, but it's really not too evident. I guess I would say one thing is happening on the Republican side. I think there's a widespread recognition from everybody who's not in Ted Cruz's own personal household that this was a very dumb strategy, that if you walk into a confrontation with the president, there should be some possibility of success.
And they walked in really with zero possibility of success. Focusing on Obamacare, which was never going to be defunded, merely distracted from the actual of Obamacare. It distracted from the issues upon which Republicans are strongest. And so it was an incredibly dumb, ham-fisted policy.
And I think that awareness has spread throughout the Senate, where I gather there's been some sharp challenges to Ted Cruz from some of his colleagues. It's certainly spread among the Republican elder class, the people around town who are -- who want the Republican Party to do well.
And so there's been a lot -- a little more rethinking and a little more opposition, I would say, to some of the Tea Party, Ted Cruz types, which, hopefully, in my view, will build and offer some more sensible alternative.
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E.J. DIONNE: .... the thing that really strikes me, I was in the White House this week and talked to a number of top aides to President Obama, and I have never seen the administration be so resolute in saying, we cannot make any concessions on the issue of the shutdown or on the debt ceiling. We are happy to negotiate after those are settled.
Obama is famous for liking to negotiate. Some of us are actually somewhat critical of him for being too eager to negotiate, but this time, they're saying there is a principle here. It's a constitutional monstrosity to use these threats to try to get something done, in this case repealing the Affordable Care Act, when the president won't sign it and they don't have a majority in the Senate.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Constitutional monstrosity, David? Is that what it would be?
DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I mean, listen, this has become such a stupid event, because we're not even arguing about the size of the government or the actual philosophical divide. We're arguing about process, about who will talk to who and who's willing to negotiate more and who's willing to negotiate less.
So, I think it strikes most people, as it strikes me, as a debate with no substance to it, and as a debate about dysfunction in which Washington displays its dysfunction. Now, I concede that most of the blame probably has to go to the Republicans.
But I do not think Barack Obama's off the hook here entirely. I do think, overall, it has been a long-running problem for this administration that they didn't find a way to isolate the Tea Party and work with the other Republicans to create a governing majority, and that still holds.
Now they're going to try to do it, and I hope they do. Maybe they can carry it over into immigration and other things. But it's been a problem for the administration, unable to get -- to separate the small rump group from the rest of the Republicans, who they could have worked with.
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E.J. DIONNE: He (Boehner) gave some signals that he would never allow us to default, he would somehow pass the debt ceiling, and yet today he was out there talking about spending, which had nothing to do with Obamacare, saying something must be done about this. I think that it's -- somehow, he's got to find a way to end this, because it's hurting Washington generally, but it's clearly hurting Republicans more.
But I think, if he doesn't end it, some of the Republicans who come from districts like here in Virginia, where we're sitting, where a lot of federal workers live, in states like New York and Pennsylvania, where they said, this isn't the kind of Republicanism we believe in, and I think they may have to create some of the pressure to get off this.
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E.J. DIONNE: But one good thing could come out of this. I think the Tea Party is past its high tide. I think there is a slowly building revolt within Republican ranks against this kind of politics, which is not about governing. It's about stopping stuff.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Less than 30 seconds. Do you agree with that?
DAVID BROOKS: I do. I do.
I think it's a rump that had its moment. On the other hand, it does have institutions, it has a donor base, and it has aggression. Ted Cruz, those Republicans, the Heritage Action groups, they go after other Republicans. There's an aggressiveness there that is not matched by any other part of the party. And somebody has to stand up and balance it.
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