When The Bad Guys Raise The White Flag Of Surrender ...

There's got to be:

(a) Somebody on the other side to accept the surrender sword ... you know, the one they planned on using to SLASH Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security; and

(b) Somebody who can not only raise the white flag of surrender but keep the rank-and-file from open rebellion ... What's that I hear about Jean D'Orange and Mr. Turtle being lousy leaders ... rumors of a coup in the air?

And, Rachel, when it comes to President Obama, it's TRUST BUT VERIFY. Raul Grijalva and the Progressive Caucus I trust; the GREAT Senators Bernie Sanders, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Sherrod Brown I trust; Nancy Pelosi, I TRUST AND LOVE because we know she's been in the President's face Big Time (sweet as can be to him, but skinning his DINO advisers alive) ... In fact, MINI-MEMO to those seniors who voted these Republicans in: YOU DO NOT DESERVE A CHAMPION LIKE NANCY PELOSI, YOU RATBASTARD OLD FARTS!

So there's that, Rachel. Sorry if I "emote" but this game's not over and the President could still snatch defeat from the jaws of victory if he insists on his CRAVEN "GRAND BARGAIN" — don't need to see the details; Nancy Pelosi's contemptuous expression as she spat it out told us all we needed to know.

President Obama's "Independents Strategy" is all well and good, but with 80 percent of Americans opposing cuts to the Big Three, playing games and "12" politics with people's lives is not appreciated and will not be tolerated by rank-and-file Democrats. Despite tomorrow's expected triumphalist coverage of the President's presumed triangulating "genius" the devil's still in the details, as Nancy Pelosi stressed. TRUST BUT VERIFY.

A clean vote on a debt ceiling increase shorn of all conditions, AS HAS ALWAYS BEEN DONE IN THE PAST, is victory for Democrats. We want to take this issue to the voters. When we win back the House BIG TIME, as well as keep the Senate and White House, then we can rationally make decisions about the nation's future. ONCE THE CRAZIES ARE SWEPT FROM OFFICE.

Nancy Pelosi said she "couldn't be prouder of the President's leadership." (WINK.) Take the deal, Mr. President. Please. The debt ceiling vote is NOT the venue to re-engineer the New Deal. No matter what your unelected-hated-by-Krugman economic advisers have to say.