Ted Cruz, John Boehner Don’t Care If Shutdown Hurts You

Earlier this morning, the usually well meaning Chris Matthews made an interesting observation about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), one of the key players in the now-official government shutdown^[1]. Matthews said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” “Ted Cruz is brilliant. I think President Obama^[2] may have met his match.” I immediately had to flip to something more mentally stimulating: last night’s edition of “The Real Housewives of Miami.” Ted Cruz is a lot of things — most of which I cannot repeat in this space — but brilliant is a stretch by far. Last week, another MSNBC host, Lawrence O’Donnell, spoke of members of the media being “blinded” by Ted Cruz’s resume.

O’Donnell explained^[3]:

“Ted Cruz says things that are profoundly wrong all day long, and the Washington media does not hold it against him because they all believe that he is smart enough to know the truth and understand the truth but that he is simply lying about it. And the Washington media actually respects lying, respects political lying. They believe it is part of the game, because they believe governing — the thing they are supposed to be covering as reporters — is a game.”

Cruz is an attention-whoring narcissist, who to his credit, does know how to cherry pick which trends to hop on in order to advance himself — in this instance, the stupidity and recklessness of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. But if that makes him “brilliant,” the same can be said of Kim Kardashian.

Cruz is nothing more than the most-obnoxious reality star on the planet, only it is to everyone else’s detriment that his show is based in Washington.

For the first time since 1995, the government has shut down. While that may be not for long, it’s long enough for the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who will miss out on money because rich, obnoxious, well-off men and women of power don’t want millions of people to get more affordable access to health care^[4]. If it lasts longer than a few days, the consequences^[5] will spread mighty quickly.

Ted Cruz and company act as if they are doing this “for the people,” but anyone with at least four out of five working senses should know better: Ted Cruz is a con artist, and the Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) is a cowardly impression of a real leader given he allowed a freshman senator from Texas to cajole control of his side of Congress.

The sad irony is, most Republican members of the House of Representatives don’t want this fight. Neither does the majority of the GOP Senators. Only a handful of people are cheering this government shutdown, most of whom are the likes of Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), a.k.a. the original “Crazy Eyes.” It is Ted Cruz who emboldened them and undermined Boehner’s leadership. It is Boehner who has allowed this to happen.

Around 1:00 a.m., Boehner said in the House chambers^[6]:

“The House has made it’s position known very clearly. We believe we should fund the government and there should be basic fairness for all Americans under Obamacare. The Senate has continued to reject our offers. I would hope the Senate would go to conference and discuss this so we can resolve this for the American people.”

This is utter nonsense. These self-involved sore losers bought off by various industries are trying to ask for the repeal of the Affordable Health Care act in exchange of allowing the government to run for a couple more weeks. This is selfish, this is petty, this is utterly insane. Worse, this strategy will re-emerge in only a few weeks.

RELATED: Need Health Insurance? Here’s How You Can Get Affordable Coverage Starting Oct. 1^[7]

Based on some of the media coverage, though, you would think that it’s “both sides” that are unwilling to compromise. Such is a media narrative created for the sake of ratings. The truth is a lot less WWE-style for news directors. There are two men to boo and hiss in response to the government shutdown, but it’s certainly not President Obama or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Stop saying otherwise. After all, much of this has been about Ted Cruz and his band of anarchists wanting as much exposure as possible. Give it to them…but in a much more honest context.