Tea Party Congressman Clashes with MSNBCCCP Anchor: Obama Will 'Negotiate With Terrorists' But Not The GOP

by JASmius

In light of a New York Times article published Saturday that described an "epic battle" raging within the Republican Party....

The New York Times and Doug Gibbs on the same page.  This really is a sign of the Apocalypse.

....MSNBC's Craig Melvin invited tea party congressman Joe Barton (R-TX6) on his show and began by asking one question: "Who's calling the shots, is it Speaker Boehner or Texas Senator Ted Cruz?"

Not quite as insightful a question as it would have been a few weeks ago.  Still, it makes you wonder which answer Melvin was rooting for.  I know what I would pick, but only because I know Doug would pick the opposite.

Barton began by denying that any major divide exists in the GOP between the tea party faction and the establishment.

Aaaaand ensured he'll be primaried next year.  Guess he's not taking orders from Senator Cruz.

As for Cruz, Barton assured Melvin, "He is not calling the shots."

What?  After promising the moons and the stars on getting rid of ObamaCare and then not delivering any of it?  Man, Barton holds a grudge, doesn't he?

Instead, he said President Obama's "calling the shots" in the House of Representatives "by refusing the negotiate." He added, "He'll negotiate with terrorists overseas, but he won't negotiate with Speaker Boehner."

Good line because it's true, every word of it.  But it's for that very reason that the shutdown strategy won't work.  It's simple: O doesn't want to negotiate, doesn't think he has to negotiate, and doesn't give a frog's fat leg about how his vindictive obstinancy polls because he'll never face any election of any sort again.  He'll push this to and past a default, bring the entire country crashing down, because then he'd have another crisis to exploit.

Put another way, he's Hillary, not Bill.

After playing a recent clip of Barton arguing against Obamacare on the House floor, Melvin asked, "Is that really the most effective use of time right now?"

Well, he could have been down at the World War II memorial tearing down the barrycades your big-eared god ordered erected to be a dick to the Greatest Generation, but it wasn't his turn that day.

Barton said that fact the Melvin played the sound bite on the air proves that it was an effective use of his time, and continued to argue that "the people" don't want the Affordable Care Act to be implemented.

He's got you there, Mel.  Even if nobody outside an insane asylum was watching him say it.

Reminding Barton that Congress voted for Obamacare and the Supreme Court upheld it (in a vote Barton called "questionable"), Melvin asked, "At what point do you stop this silly little game?"

You mean "one lies and the other one swears to it"?  I thought only Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and the late Gorilla Monsoon played that silly little game.

Barton fought back against accusations that he doesn't care about opinion polls that show high disapproval numbers for Republicans in this fight because he's in a safely conservative district in Texas. When he pivoted back to talking about the failures of Obamacare, Melvin asked, "Are you aware that the program itself was rolled out just a few days ago?"

Dude, "rolling out" implies motion.  You could fill your intestines with concrete and they would roll better than ObamaCare is.

He said he was aware that some people have begun to apply for the exchanges, but declared, "I don't believe Obamacare as it is a law will ever really work."

If Barton hadn't incurred himself a primary challenge with that earlier answer, he guaranteed it with this hemmy-hawy one.

"That's not the issue!" Melvin shot back. "The issue is reopening the government!"

You must have your prayer rug with you.  Send some supplications in your messiah's direction.  And some shrimp-scented incense.  He likes that.