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"  I mentioned earlier today that Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, had come out with an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in which he postulated that the Reign Of The Morons could end if only we admitted that he and Mitt Romney really had won the election -- and, therefore, the right to enact their economic plan -- in 2012. I also speculated that there would be at least a few nominally sane people inside the Beltway who&amp;#039;d buy Ryan&amp;#039;s latest crock of beans as the act of a statesman. Step right up, my man Chuck Todd. And friends. Moreover, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan argued for &amp;quot;both sides&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;agree to common-sense reforms of the country&amp;#039;s entitlement programs and tax code.&amp;quot; What he called for were some of the very things that Obama and Democrats have already put on the table. Medicare means-testing? Check. Further long-term entitlement cuts (like Chained CPI?)? Check. Bipartisan tax reform? Check. Most important, however, was what Ryan DIDN&amp;#039;T MENTION in the op-ed: any changes to the president&amp;#039;s health-care law. So Ryan&amp;#039;s op-ed is a pretty big deal; it&amp;#039;s an olive branch (from its tone) and it lays a potential way out. Even assuming Ryan doesn&amp;#039;t also mean the Affordable Care Act when he talks about &amp;quot;entitlement reform&amp;quot; -- which I don&amp;#039;t, necessarily -- here&amp;#039;s the liberal MSNBC arguing that the best result that can come of this is knuckling old people and sick people while reforming the tax code in such a way that none of Ryan&amp;#039;s plutocratic cronies pays an extra dime. Here is the evidence for the plaintiffs. The big question, of course, is if conservatives will feel betrayed by this potential way out -- that is, some legislative process fix that forces the White House into debt talks that will include zero real changes to health care. Already, Heritage Action&amp;#039;s spokesman tweeted, &amp;quot;Much like White House press, Paul Ryan doesn&amp;#039;t mention Obamacare in WSJ oped.&amp;quot; The Senate Conservative Fund quipped, &amp;quot;@PRyan Obamacare is the #1 job killer and it will bankrupt our country. Your plan does nothing to stop it.&amp;quot; And conservative commentator Erick Erickson went off on Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) for reportedly criticizing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at a closed GOP meeting. Over the past few months, we&amp;#039;ve had this question for Republicans and conservatives: What is victory for them? Is it some compromise entitlement changes and tax reform? If so, that outcome looks attainable. Or is it a significant rollback to the president&amp;#039;s health-care law? For the conservative leaders in Washington, it&amp;#039;s clear they would prefer a focus on debt and entitlements. For some of these conservative grassroots leaders, it&amp;#039;s Obamacare or bust. This is, of course, what Boehner&amp;#039;s been worried about all along. (And, yes, I wish the president hadn&amp;#039;t flirted with some of Ryan&amp;#039;s snake oil, thereby giving the charlatan this kind of opening.) Actually, &amp;quot;the big question,&amp;quot; of course, for me, is how many people who aren&amp;#039;t on Chuck Todd&amp;#039;s contact list will find their lives made more miserable if we allow the likes of the ZEGS to dictate terms of how the current mishigas ends. That&amp;#039;s what I&amp;#039;ve been &amp;quot;worried about all along.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a25122/chuck-todd-end-of-shutdown-article-100913/>