Don't Think with Your Johnson

On the surface, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), backed by the Tea Party Corporation, made some comments on CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper, that sounded remarkably open and reasonable.  The senator said that shutting down the government by trying to defund the Affordable Care Act might not have been all that great an idea. 

"It probably wasn't the best strategy to employ," he said.  Furthermore, he continued by giving actual specifics why the effort was guaranteed to fail -- and that it was clear from the start.  "From my standpoint," he said, speaking as a member of the Senate Budget Committee, "I didn't think defunding Obamacare was achievable,  In order to defund Obamacare you needed five Democrat senators to switch their positions, and they haven't done that."

All very good.  All very admirable.

But unfortunately, this is where the whole "Speaking with forked tongue" Conundrum comes in.  Because though he is appearing to saying that this was a bad and stupid thing to do -- he also said that doing it all wasn't actually a mistake.  But in fact, he feels it was quite a good thing. 

"I appreciate any effort that really highlights how harmful Obamacare is going to be."

Forget for a moment that he is saying that he appreciates the effort that he says wasn't a good strategy and not achievable.

Instead, consider that he thinks the effort highlighted how harmful the Affordable Care Act will be.

How many people think that that's the Big Takeaway from all the news the past week?  How really problematic Obamacare -- not is, but "will be."  That that's been the major focus of the news lately.  Hands, anyone?

Me, I think that the effort highlighted how harmful it is when the government shuts down.  Me, I think what the country has been focused on almost exclusively is what areas of government have been shut down and how do we extricate ourselves from this mess.  I've hardly even heard much talk at all about the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have notably be shifting away from for the moment in exchange for trying to make an issue of the president not negotiating with them (something they turned down 18 times previously).  In fact, the only ACA conversation that I've been hearing and reading about is how the website has been overloaded which caused crashes, and also the good health plans people have been discovering.

But Senator Johnson thinks the whole good deal about all is that the country is focused on "how harmful Obamacare is going to be."

Actually, I don't have a clue what Mr. Johnson actually thinks.  But that's okay, because I'm in good company.  After all, I don't get the sense that he does either.