And in the latest Republican news–

First, Sen. Ted Cruz tells a conservative group America needs 100 Jesse Helms in the Senate (former NC Senator Helms retired a decade ago, and is now dead). Helms fought against the civil rights revolution, despised gays, despised blacks and shamelessly used anti-black themes in his political campaigns (some of them in the same vein as the Scary Black Man punditry we still see). And unlike some segregationists he never repented, apologized or changed (links at the LGM post give the details). And I am not willing to credit that anyone who invokes Helms as a role model is talking about his political style or conservative positions divorced from racism (particularly when Cruz admits his first political contribution was to one of Helms’ campaigns). If this isn’t a big shout out to the racists in the party (much like Reagan’s decision to make a campaign stop in 1980 at the site of a major murder of civil-rights workers), Cruz has to prove it.
Of course, he’s not going to get my vote anyway, so why should he care?
Then we have House Republicans once again fighting against increasing the debt ceiling. Not the budget, they’re talking about defaulting on debts we’ve already incurred. As Digby says, Repubs talk about having to follow the law, but they don’t seem so keen on it when it inconveniences them or there’s something to gain by not.
Over in Tennessee, Volkswagen has decided that it’s going to negotiate with the UAW when it opens a plant there (apparently the labor reps on the VW board object to American plants going un-unionized). Result? Repubs freak out, declaring VW will be a laughing stock and that the South will lose jobs if unions get a foothold. And they’ve actually tried to talk the company out of it. I suspect it’s both the fear of growing unionization and the fear of labor unions as a political force more than any concern for VW getting laughed at by the cool corporations. Still, it’s telling that their reverence for the rights of business owners and corporations doesn’t trump their anti-union stance (VW is doing this voluntarily).