House Republican Tries, Fails to Put Out the “Don’t Know” Mess He Made
Rep. Marlin Stutzman stepped in it yesterday when he seemingly summed up the absurdity of the current shutdown in one short quote he gave to the Washington Examiner: “We’re not going to be disrespected,” the Indiana Republican said of his party’s negotiating strategy. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”
That last part—I don’t know what that even is—was just about the worst thing a lawmaker could say during a shutdown fight that has now become largely about which party can sell the American public on the idea that they’re the only responsible adults in Washington. It was greeted with headlines ranging from: “Congressman Stutzman: He Has No Idea What the GOP Wants” (Time) to “Why the shutdown will be so hard to end, in one perfect quote” (WaPo).
On Thursday, Stutzman tried to clean up the mess with a canned statement that did little to articulate the specifics of what the Republicans say they want, via TPM:
Leave a Reply