Shutdown, schmutdown

In life, context is everything; in Washington, leverage is everything else. Both are essential to understanding what just happened.

In the hours leading up to and following Tuesday’s government shutdown, conventional spin (wisdom is on permanent leave) was that the tea-party crazies popularly known as the Insanity Caucus were driving the Republican House, compliments of lead wacko-bird Sen. Ted Cruz, so named by John McCain and subsequently embraced by Cruz.