Winners/Losers: #TheShutdown

Compiled by Chris Graham

BIGGEST LOSER: #RUKiddingMe

Yeah, the Republican brand has taken a huge hit. The Senate, in play in the 2014 cycle, now seems a stretch. The House, safe in 2010 and 2012 due to state-level gerrymandering, is now in play for Democrats, in the lead big-time in generic congressional polling.

And for what? Seriously. What did Republicans get out of shutting down government for 16 days and risking default?

 

BIG WINNER: #OYeah

Barack Obama supposedly was out of the loop, not leaderlike. Where was he in the early days of the shutdown?

Not caving in to Republicans, that’s where.

ObamaCare is intact. Government spending is where it was before the shutdown. A big elephant carcass is being hauled out of the Capitol.

Barry knows how to play this game.

 

COULD BE BETTER: #BoehnOfMyExistence

House Speaker John Boehner has been dropping like an anchor since the 2012 election anyway. He’s a freak of gerrymandering, the leader of a caucus in a majority in state-level redistricting only.

That said, there’s a time for a man to be dragged kicking and screaming to a fight that he doesn’t want to be in, and a time to be the kind of man who knows that there might be a better day to fight the fight.

Boehner is the Tea Party’s bee-yatch. Roadkill looks down on him and sneers.

 

COULD BE WORSE: #WhenHarryMetHistory

The Senate Majority Leader will get the credit for leading the bipartisan compromise that gets us out of the stupid, self-created shutdown near-catastrophe.

Another way to look at Harry Reid’s role is, hey, it was going to end eventually; so why did eventually take 16 days?

 

MIA: #NancyPelosiMilkCarton

Poor House Minority Leader. Kept calling John Boehner to offer her help toward a solution. And never got her calls returned.

Nothing against her personally; that’s just how bipartisanship in the House works, with the House GOP caucus playing both sides.

 

MYSTERY MAN: #BidenMyTime

Was there a spate of funerals of third-tier foreign leaders or something? Where the hell was Joe Biden the past 16 days?