Chuck Todd On House Republicans: "They're Bluffing, They've Got Nothing"
CHUCK TODD: Andrea, think about 17 years ago. Seventeen years ago, President Clinton was not in as good of a place politically. Look, President Obama has had some troubles this summer and all of that, but he's in a better place right now politically than President Clinton was at that time. House Republicans and Senate Republicans were united on a strategy back in 1995, the Republicans controlled both the House and Senate.
I know John Boehner has made this argument and case to some of these new conservatives who have no idea what happened in '95 and why things went south for the Republican party when they actually had kings and aces in their hand. On this one they don't have a good hand to play, if you're going to put this in poker. They're bluffing, they've got nothing. And the question is going to be if they end up shutting down the government for three or four days, then politically they are going to have no shot using the debt ceiling.
And that's why I think ultimately my gut is they come up with some sort of short-term solution that keeps the lights on in the government because there is that sense that they somehow can extract concession on the debt ceiling. I'm skeptical they can do that, but if they believe they need to keep that leverage, then they can't afford to shut down now.
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