It was about this time last week when the countdown clocks were featured on all the cable news stations and everyone thought we’d probably avert a shutdown sometime during the day. It did not happen, and last Monday at midnight eastern time the “ball dropped” on the government shutdown.

The battle lines over the Government shutdown have been drawn this past week, with almost everyone having an opinion on whom to blame. Many of the main players appeared on the Sunday talk show circuit to make their case.

I happened to catch two Sunday talk shows – Meet the Press and Fox News Sunday. On Meet the Press, the Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie was hosting for David Gregory. Guthrie should probably stick with the softer side of the news that the Today Show features and stay off Meet the Press. As for Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace must have received orders from the “mothership” to attack liberals more than normal. His questioning seemed pretty one-sided to me. That’s not always the way Wallace operates.

As for me, I still blame the problem on the group of Tea Party Republicans in the U.S. House and Senator Ted Cruz. For my readers in Montana, Congressman Steve Daines has aligned himself with the Tea Party. We all know what happened to Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg when he aligned himself with the Tea Party – he became “former” Congressman.

This problem could be easily fixed if a continuing resolution (CR), without a bunch of pork attached, was voted on the in the House. It would easily pass. Speaker of the House John Boehner does not have the guts to stand up against the Tea Party. Boehner is afraid they will throw him out as Speaker. Real leaders lead and Boehner is not leading. He will easily go down in history as one of the worst Speakers. As for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, he is up for re-election in 2014 so look for him to do what his fellow Kentucky (Tea Party) Senator, Rand Paul does.

Now it looks like the next major date on the calendar is October 17 (10 days away), which is the date the debt limit must be increased. The GOP seems to want to tie passing a continuing resolution with increasing the debt limit. Continue reading →