The Man in the Dynamite Waistcoat

If you walk into a bank wearing a bunch of explosives, your strategy for making a large unauthorized withdrawal depends on convincing the bank that you really are nuts enough to blow yourself up. Thus we have Republican Congressman Ted Yoho of Florida.

Annie Lowrey ✔ @AnnieLowrey Ted Yoho (R-FL) on breaching the debt ceiling: “I think, personally, it would bring stability to the world markets.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-ted-yoho-government-shutdown-is-the-tremor-before-the-tsunami/2013/10/04/98b5aa8c-2c3c-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html …

Josh Marshall:

There many roots of this crisis. Demographic, ideological, regional, some parts tied to accidents of history (the existence of the debt ceiling itself), others to the structure of our government. But I think most people, as crazy as this looks, are underestimating the scope of the crisis we're in the midst of. The pieces are in place to resolve the matter quickly, in the narrow sense of the votes. But the House Tea Party (and it really does look more like a distinct party or faction at this point) is forcing the matter, despite having well under a hundred seats in the House. Behind them they have an aggrieved GOP base and sustaining them the vast tranches of money provided by the Kochs and other top GOP mega-funders. John Boehner, not structurally in the sense of his office or position but personally, is simply too weak a figure to avert what's coming. Get ready.

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