I'm not sure what the old liberal is trying to say. Are we on the verge of another Civil War? Or are House Republicans sort of like the southern fire eaters who started the conflict? National Journal: As the clock ticks down toward a possible government shutdown, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, isn't holding back. On the Senate floor before 10 a.m. Friday, the senator gave a speech describing how American politics have reached the level at which "a small group of willful men and women who have a certain ideology"-read: the tea party and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas-have been able to take over the congressional budget debate in the last week. "Since they can't get their way," Harkin said, "they're going to create this confusion and discourse and hope that the public will be so mixed up in who is to blame for this, that they'll blame both sides." This isn't just congressional business as usual, Harkin said. It's much, much more dire: It's dangerous. It's very dangerous. I believe, Mr....(Read Full Post)