IT'S NOT JUST US LIBERALS...

Josh Marshall suggests that debt debate is starting to come down to the Baggers versus the rest of us, in which case the Baggers lose and America wins, relatively speaking.  Marshall may have been influenced by this recent WSJ editorial, "The GOP's Reality Test" -

The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.

This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees.

The Boehner plan is the most credible proposal with a chance of becoming law before the 2012 election.

If conservatives defeat the Boehner plan, they'll not only undermine their House majority. They'll go far to re-electing Mr. Obama and making the entitlement state that much harder to reform.