Quote of the Day

“It's time for him to lead this effort as the commander in chief of this country.”

-- Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), speaking on "Face the Nation" about President Obama and the sequester

This has now become the latest strategy by the Republicans in Congress, as the deadline for the sequester and its draconian cuts nears, to the point of barreling down on them.  It's referred to as the "Please help us from ourselves" Gambit.  Or the "We've drove into this forest, but we can't find our way out, could you please tell us the way out" Strategem.

It should be noted that the last time President Obama try to lead an effort as commander in chief of this country, Sen. Ayotte was one of three Republican senators leading to effort to block the president's nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense, ultimately helping start the first filibuster in the history of the United States of a Defense Secretary cabinet nomination.  So, her admonition to Mr. Obama would ring oh-so-less hollow if she actually stood behind her own words.

One would think, too, that it went without saying that it's hard to miss that the President of the United States actually has been leading the effort to avoid the sequester, making proposals of balanced budget cuts and revenue increases for many weeks.  The problem has been that Republicans in Congress have said "no" to all that and are insisting on cuts only.

Whimsical, too, is the reality of how many Republicans has chastised the President for supposedly wanting to be a "dictator" and acting like a "dictator" and trying to force his way on Congress as a "dictator" -- yet here, when they've dug themselves into a hole that they can't get out of, they're now admonishing him to tell them what to do.

The only thing more adorable than all this are the Republicans trying to re-name this as "Obama's Sequester."  Because apparently they've forgotten that they negotiated the terms, voted for it of their own free will, and the Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) said that "I got 98% of what I wanted."  But this a different tactic entirely.  This one is known as the "He made me do it" Maneuver. 

Of course, it's known as that by eight-year-olds.