Paul Begala: I Miss Bob Dole

The government shutdown of 1995, dramatic though it was for the country and damaging though it was to the GOP, looks like the height of Republican reasonableness compared with today’s brinksmanship over default.

So much is different from 1995. The economy is weaker. Experts say the economic consequences of default may far exceed a mere government shutdown. The Republicans are much more, shall we say, ideologically inspired—with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in constant, furious competition to prove who’s more devoted to the Tea Party’s extremist position that the federal government must never, under any circumstances, increase federal revenue by so much as a penny, no matter how catastrophic the consequences. But perhaps the biggest difference is that Bob Dole isn’t in the room.

After then–House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s “crybaby” rant about getting a bad seat on Air Force One (by the way, Mr. Gingrich, there are no bad seats on Air Force One) and the ensuing shutdown, it was Senate Majority Leader Dole who stopped the nonsense.