Debt Deal's Winners and Losers

Mitch McConnell, Tea Party at the forefront: Chris Cillizza
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 1, 2011 7:57 AM CDT
Mitch McConnell, Tea Party, President Obama Winners in Debt Deal: Chris Cillizza
Tea Party activists were winners in the debt debate, writes Chris Cillizza.   (AP Photo/Steve Yeater)

The debt-deal dust has yet to settle, but that's not stopping anyone from analyzing its political consequences. In the Washington Post, Chris Cillizza notes the winners:

  • Mitch McConnell was “the Mariano Rivera of the debt deal. He waited until the game was in its final moments, came onto the field and helped close things down.”
  • The Tea Party showed its sway, driving John Boehner to delay his bill and “add conservative sweeteners to get the 217 votes he needed.”

  • President Obama may not have scored with the left, but in 2012, he’s aiming for moderates and independents. “And those fence-sitters love compromise in almost any form.” (Click to hear from two pundits who disagree.)
  • David Wu: “Has a member of Congress forced to resign amid a sex scandal ever drawn less media attention?”
Among the losers:
  • Congress just keeps sinking in the public estimation, particularly “after this high-profile demonstration of brinkmanship and intransigence.”
  • Gang of Six: “The group was supposed to put lie to the idea that true bipartisanship—in which both sides give somewhat equally—was dead.” It didn’t work.
  • Liberals: No revenue? Possible Medicare cuts? “There’s not much for the ideological left to celebrate.”
Click for more of Cillizza's winners and losers. (More Mitch McConnell stories.)

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