Erick Erickson, Lord of the House Republicans
There is precisely one person on Earth for whom this terrible debt ceiling debate has been a net positive: Erick Erickson, CNN political analyst and blogger at RedState.com! He's used it to portray himself as the most important person in Republican party politics, with his trenchant blog posts. Did you know that House Republicans need his permission to do anything? It's true! Our politics are just that healthy.
Erickson, whose incoherent ramblings against any sort of debt plan that isn't called "Cut, Cap and Balance" make for scary closed-door lunchtime reading in the House Republican caucus, has issued another papal bull today that will reverberate through the hallways of the Capitol Hill Club, where all Republicans worth their salt gather to read the RedState blog on their BlackBerries. It is a masterstroke of self-promotion — and, sadly, he's probably not even exaggerating that much.
If only God himself could read this in his deep "God voice" from on high, as if to address Abraham:
The Absolution I Cannot Give
In the past 48 hours I have had call after call after call from members of the United States Congress. They've read what I've written. They agree. But they feel the hour is short and the end is nigh.
So some are calling looking for alternatives. Some are calling looking for energy. Many are calling looking for absolution.
And so I address them and put it here so you can see my advice.
I can give no absolution for what you may be about to do.
Call after call after call after call after call after call after call after call after call after call, after call, and a few more calls, and then spaketh the Lord, Erick Son of Erick: Nay.
Then all was silent.
