House Speaker John Boehner's debt ceiling plan doesn't have the votes to pass, but let's remember (because it will be distorted in the future), that he doesn't have REPUBLICAN votes.  It's the Tea Party people he can't bring on board.  Remember that when Democrats get blamed.

RELATED:  Country about to go belly-up, still high unemployment, etc., but fear not American… the SMURFS are on Wall Street.

Grownups, please.

RELATED: As if to preface what I say, here's Time's Joe Klein yesterday, before last night's breakdown in the House.

[S]o, here we are. Our nation's economy and international reputation as the world's presiding grownup has already been badly damaged. It is a self-inflicted wound of monumental stupidity. I am usually willing to acknowledge that Democrats can be as silly, and hidebound, as Republicans-but not this time. There is zero equivalence here. The vast majority of Democrats have been more than reasonable, more than willing to accept cuts in some of their most valued programs. […]

The Republicans have been willing to concede nothing. Their stand means higher interest rates, fewer jobs created and more destroyed, a general weakening of this country's standing in the world. Osama bin Laden, if he were still alive, could not have come up with a more clever strategy for strangling our nation.

That last line was of particular interest, because it echoes a recent point from Nick Kristof. Indeed, the NYTcolumnist recently argued that Republicans represent a kind of domestic threat, possibly undermining the nation's interests from within: "[L]et's remember not only the national security risks posed by Iran and Al Qaeda. Let's also focus on the risks, however unintentional, from domestic zealots."