Shutdowns Then and Now: Tanks for the Memories, TNR!

Past performance is no guarantee of future results:

When faced with an intransigent, bull-headed governing body, Yeltsin did this: http://t.co/cUYGt6XaxV pic.twitter.com/zrRxRaj09V

— The New Republic (@tnr) October 1, 2013

The above Tweet is from the New Republic on October 1st of last year, with their fantasies of tank strikes on the GOP in response to last year’s government shutdown. As Jim Geraghty tweeted at the time in response, “The New Republic: Your first choice for violent, authoritarian, eliminationist rhetoric!” And back then, Twitchy added:

When Russia faced a constitutional crisis in 1993, President Boris Yeltsin did what any good dictator would do — he had the military surround the White House and had tanks shell the upper floors as a demonstration of force, announcing to the press that “Fascist-communist armed rebellion in Moscow shall be suppressed within the shortest period.”

It’s an efficient way to show who’s boss, and the folks at The New Republic seem like they’re warming up to the idea.

As I wrote at the time, Leftists convinced themselves in January of 2011 that clip art of targets and bullet points could kill — as long as it wasn’t their own. The same holds true of threatening a shutdown — they’re perfectly fine, as long as they come from an anointed member of the far left. “Elizabeth Warren Is Risking a Government Shutdown to Stop Wall Street. President Obama Should Join Her,” TNR is exuding today:

#hack RT @verumserum: Government shutdown bad: http://t.co/jt68X7MOe8 Government shutdown awesome: http://t.co/BLtLVwRJ4H”

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) December 11, 2014

As always, for the left, the motto is, “It’s Different When We Do It.”

(QED.)

Speaking of which, Ed Morrissey adds today that in addition to Warren’s fantasies of shutting the government down, Maxine Waters is pretty cool with the idea, too:

Even the President’s usual allies are turning on him. Maxine Waters told her colleagues not to allow themselves to get “intimidated” into changing their votes shortly before McDonough arrived. Waters explicitly accused Obama of conducting that intimidation:

Waters gathered more than 20 fellow Democrats to her office Thursday afternoon to push back against the president’s efforts after learning of Obama’s lobbying effort.

And she’s not apologizing for it.

“We don’t like lobbying that is being done by the president or anybody else that would allow us to support a bill that … would give a big gift to Wall Street and the bankers who caused this country to almost go into a depression,” she said. “So I’m opposed to it and we’re going to fight it.”

Waters said the lawmakers who met in her office, including Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), divvied up a list of members and took to the phones to urge Democrats to hold their ground in opposition to the package.

“We’re fighting anybody who is lobbying to tell people to vote for this bill,” Waters said. “If the president is lobbying, we do not like it, and we’re saying to our members, ‘Don’t be intimidated by anybody.’”