Don't try to tell me that it isn't over yet, because I'll just tell you that's IT'S NEVER OVER, and that moving the goal posts is perhaps easier than simply taking a break, a deep breath, and observing what finally happened today.
For tonight, the attempt of the Tea Party and the far right wing to put a gun to this country's head is over. And it's a bad "over" for them, and we all know that.
And I really don't want to hear about how this diary is spiking the football, although surely there will be some to make that case. Have at it. But I want to be clear that it is not so much celebration I want to talk about, as relief.
Relief first and foremost and emphatically, that this president said NO. He said it weeks ago and he NEVER stopped saying it. Not even when it came down to calling the game, a perilous 24 hours ago, by agreeing to such relatively minor concessions as the lifting of the medical device tax, or the sickening final ploy of the GOP, to see that their own federal aides were stripped of their federal health care benefits. The president said NO.
Relief that as crazy and unworkable as Washington seems to be these days, in the end, at the very last moment, it worked. I know, in light of all the damage done it's small comfort, but it is some comfort.
Relief that the Democrats hung tough. They really did, and to anyone with a mouth so full of sour grapes they can't see that, then the pity is on them.
Relief that the government will be up and running soon, with all those who have taken the brunt of this in the worst ways much more RELIEVED then I am.
Relief that Ted Cruz is a rocket that may just damned well have burned himself out right off the launch pad. And if the worse case scenario is that the republicans choose to continue to swear their fealty to him, then really guys, all the better for us.
Relief that America, as dumb as some here may think they are, really, definitively and absolutely rejected the ploy of the minority to hold the majority hostage, and to undermine the results of our elections. That really is good news.
And on that note, I want to say that this was the issue that over arched all other issues. And I'm not a fan of conflating it with everything that might come to be. The president and the Democrats clearly won this, and it is BIG.
The folks who suffered in these last weeks of no pay checks and no assurance of when their pay checks might return, well, they're not getting the last 3 weeks of their worry and stress back, even if they do get the retro pay. And it's disgusting that the GOP put them through this for nothing, and that the GOP put this whole country through these last few weeks for nothing.
And yet, it wasn't entirely for nothing. The GOP has been on a fast track to this kind of disaster since Obama put his hand on the Bible. And tonight they're finally going to be told enough is enough. And finally, that is good news.
Some here may want to believe that come January and February they'll do the same thing all over again. And maybe they will, although I doubt it. But even if they do, this is something we must accept in the spirit of how the president has led us on this, THIS TIME. We're ready to say NO again. And if they want to play this game all over again, well then, they will do it even CLOSER to the mid terms. We all fear that everyone will have forgotten the disgraceful activities of the GOP NOW by the midterms. So, if they give us the chance to remind everyone once again how full of crap they are, even closer to the midterms, then I think we can deal with that. And I know the president can.
Now, will there be all kinds of aggravating and infuriating discussions about the budget between now and early next year? You betcha, so fasten your seat belts.
But darn it, let us stop for just a minute tonight, and reflect upon the fact that the president and the Democrats held their ground on an issue that I think will affect the future in very good ways, no matter how much bad news the future has to deliver. And the future always has bad and good news to deliver.
Let us not forget in the days, weeks and months to come, that the issue we prevailed on tonight---the president, the Democrats, America, you and me, will be one the history books talk about. It's no small thing.