Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Some great ideas for Eric Cantor

Cantor has been quoted as saying, not only that the Republicans should refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless they get massive policy capitulations from the Democrats, but that they should keep the hostage situation going for as long as possible - long past the date in May when the debt limit will formally be breached, and on towards (or past) July when the Treasury expects to run out of tricks that would stave off a literal act of default.

Great thinking on his part, but I have some even better ideas:

--Cantor should get his hands on some nuclear weapons and arrange to have them hidden in major U.S. cities. They should be irrevocably triggered to explode unless he and Obama turn a key together at the same time.

--Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee must have gotten some confidential information that would be of enormous interest to Al Qaeda. This information should be sent under seal to a neutral trustee in a country outside the U.S. realm of influence. The trustee's irrevocable instructions will be to turn over the information to Al Qaeda unless he gets a letter by a given date signed by both Cantor and Obama.

These plans are admittedly a bit more rigorous than merely destroying our country's creditworthiness. (Actually, depending on the exact info conveyed, the second might well be considerably less harmful than deliberate default.) But otherwise they are entirely consonant with what Cantor is advocating.

UPDATE: I think I start griping about politics and such when my time at work takes a turn away from the things that I want to do and more towards meeting obligations (even those I've taken on willingly). I've been carving away lately at a formidable backlog of talks, lectures, panels to arrange, etcetera, and summer writing seems as far away still as summer weather.

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