October 14 – A Senate Veteran on the Last-Minute Deal to Avoid Default; “Inside the Republican Suicide Machine”; What is Behind the Poisonous Politics of Polarization?

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with last-minute efforts to avoid a default with all eyes on the U.S Senate where a deal is in the works but what happens after that when it gets to the House remains uncertain. Jim Manley, who served as a senior advisor to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for six years and before that was an aide to Senator Ted Kennedy for 12 years, joins us with an assessment of the sudden bi-partisanship and spirit of compromise on display between Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell.

Part 2

Then we speak with Tim Dickinson about his article in the current Rolling Stone “Inside the Republican Suicide Machine” that reveals the role of Congressman Jim Jordan, the head of the shadow leadership team in the House know as the Jedi Council that has been dogging Speaker Boehner at every turn and still may try to thwart him on avoiding a default, as well as challenge his leadership later should Boehner allow a vote of the full House before Thursday.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the state of polarization in Washington with Keith Poole, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia and author of “Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches”. We discuss the reasons why our politics have become so poisonous, polarized and gridlocked and whether the Republicans will pay a price for the Tea Party’s unpopular exercise of government by extortion.