Kentucky's two master strategist GOP Senators think an open microphone won't pick up their whispering. And you wonder why Obama is eating these guys lunches right now?
CNN adds some context:
Q: Mitch McConnell's and Rand Paul's hot mic moment was instructive in showing the disconnect between what they are supposed to be doing and what they want to be doing. What does it mean to you to overhear this?
Crowley: It certainly is a signal to the House. We had heard Rand Paul say publicly 'we're not going to be able to get rid of Obamacare.' But it's a great starting position. We have had, in particular in the Senate, a lot of Republican senators saying shutting down the government is a bad idea, it won't work for Republicans politically.
This tells me that they are in a position that the Senate doesn't want to be in. It tells me that they are hearing privately and publicly from the president 'no negotiations,' which probably is more troublesome in terms of there really isn't anything going on. We kept thinking there was -- that maybe somewhere people were talking about a compromise and clearly that's not happening.
So, what Republicans believe is that that particular stance -- we're not going to negotiate on anything -- is not going to survive the test of public will. So far, what we see is Republicans are taking the bulk of the blame. We'll see if that shifts.
I think this "gaffe" was intentional on their part --Rand tells McConnell: "...we're willing to compromise, we're willing to negotiate." Yeah, right. Rand and McConnell set this up knowing (hoping) it would become public. Such childish behavior from two grown men.
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