[richlevy]

There are 233 members in the house. About 80 of them are in safe districts. The other 150 odd members at this point are asking themselves if it's more dangerous to piss off the Tea Party and risk a primary challenge on the right, or follow them off the cliff and have their Democratic opponent in the general make the point that this wouldn't have happened with a Democratic majority.

Democrats took the house after a 12 year Republican rule in 2006. Republicans took it back in 2010. Even with a huge amount of gerrymandering at the state level, any large enough event that tarnishes the Republican brand can lose them their 33 seat advantage. Driving the government over the cliff would do it. While Fox News and the right wing media machine can preach to the choir and blame Obama, most of the independents will blame the Republicans.

Boehner is out in the weeds and is vainly hoping the Senate Democrats and Obama will both blink. His party is about to go into uncharted territory in delivering the first US default in our nations history. This will impact everyone, including billionaires. It is an unprecedented man-made disaster that would have global implications.

The President has very limited powers regarding the military in domestic situations under the Posse Comitatus Act with some exceptions to deal with any physical fallout. What powers he might claim with the Treasury and Justice Departments are much less limited. The point would need to be made with the rabid right that by inflicting damage to the government they actually give more power to the President to restore order.

It would be very easy to turn a conspiracy theory into a self-fulfilling prophecy.