So what will happen if, as expected, Republicans win control of the House? We already know part of the answer: Politico reports that they’re gearing up for a repeat performance of the 1990s, with a “wave of committee investigations” — several of them over supposed scandals that we already know are completely phony. We can expect the G.O.P. to play chicken over the federal budget, too; I’d put even odds on a 1995-type government shutdown sometime over the next couple of years.The article is worth a read, and there's one passage that shed some light on something that I've had a hard time understanding about the Tea Party movement–their raging opposition to anything that is in any way connected to anyone who happens to be (even very slightly) to their left. Krugman says: "What we learned from the Clinton years is that a significant number of Americans just don’t consider government by liberals — even very moderate liberals — legitimate."
I barely remember the Clinton years, but that does explain a lot.
