Marco Rubio and the Grand Old Party Are a "Hot, Sloppy Mess"

A hot, sloppy mess. And Nicki Minaj.

​The Riptide national politics desk has been working around the clock to bring you this shocking revelation: Some Democrats suspect the Republican Party is crazy.

"I think Mitch McConnell, frankly, has lost his mind," said Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, talking about the ongoing debate surrounding raising the national debt ceiling, on MSNBC'S Morning Joe this morning. "I don't know what Boehner has going on in his caucus... It looks like a hot, sloppy mess."

And yes, she was talking about Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

She was perhaps inspired by yesterday's lengthy New York Times profile of California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, in which Robert Draper reports that freshmen congressmen, completely ignorant of the economic implications of the United States defaulting on its debts, have turned to hostage-taking tactics to get their way.

Except hostage-takers usually ask for things that are realistic, like money or a getaway car or extra pairs of nylons to put over their faces. These yuksters say they'll vote to raise the debt ceiling only if Obama agrees to repeal his devil health-care plan, or if they can get a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget, or if they can mandate that all rainbows ending in a pot of gold be registered with the Federal Leprechaun Commission. Debates that are, sure, worth having, but right this second?

And Rubio is one of the hard-liners who have floated off in the magical balloon filled with unrealistic demands, kept afloat by bizarre Tea Party winds that blow in directions no one else seems to understand.

"I will vote to defeat an increase in the debt limit unless it is the last one we ever authorize and is accompanied by a plan for fundamental tax reform, an overhaul of our regulatory structure, a cut to discretionary spending, a balanced-budget amendment, and reforms to save Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid," he wrote in a March op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Why not mention the leprechauns too? He has everything else on the list.

And by "saving Medicare," he means, well, actually he really has no idea what he means. He's hoping someone else will fix it. At least Sen. Bill Nelson wants to make sure the debt ceiling argument doesn't prevent social security checks from going out.

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