Because John Boehner is going to show his true colors very soon, and I’m fairly sure that his aged frat-boy act is going to turn venal and power-hungry very, very quickly. He didn’t just turn up as the leader of the Tea Party House out of random bad luck. He’s had years to slot himself in. He might have been fine with being Speaker for a House of Pork Barrel like in the old days, but the ball of crazy he’s riding right now is a ball of crazy he’s seen coming for more than a decade. And he’s not going to give up for something as abstract as the good of the country.

The goal of the anarchist far right is to cause a default. It’s been their goal for 20 years.

What should the Democrats do? For the abstract good of the little people Obama should invoke Article IV and let the House hurl itself upon another impeachment trial. But that might not be enough to break the anarchists so Democrats might be tempted to let the country default and milk the chaos in the elections of 2014. I see far too much risk in this. When this kind of thing happens, voluntarily, it’s a tossup whether a country recovers. I strongly hope the Democrats won’t tempt history by risking a fascist coup.