Well, it’s half past Crunch Day and negative Republican poll numbers are high enough to see the lights of El Paso.

Three more points and they can pass the driver’s license test in five states.

Look, I’m not saying I enjoy this but … oh hell, who am I kidding — this is more fun than recess in heaven.  And the diamond tiara on top of all this is that Texas Republicans are leading the  suicide mission.

To add a little hot sauce to this Republican bonfire, Ted Cruz and Louie Gohmert got caught with enchilada juice on their chins while holding a secret meeting meeting in the basement of a Tex-Mex restaurant in Dee Cee called Tortilla Coast, plotting ways to destroy any deal that might be made.  There were about 15 – 20 of the most conservative House members in attendance.

The group appeared to be talking strategy about how they should respond to a tentative Senate deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling without addressing Obamacare in a substantive way, according to sources who witnessed the gathering. The Texas Republican senator and many of the House Republicans in attendance had insisted on including amendments aimed at dismantling Obamacare in the continuing resolution that was intended to avert the current shutdown.

Can you spell o-b-s-e-s-s-i-o-n?  Cruz is even considering another filibuster.  You know, because the first one worked so well.

The best part of their little Boys Only Club meeting?  They got caught by Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, who was not invited to the conservative cabal but was a tad interested in what the fool damn tarnation did they think they were doing.

So even if a deal is reached, these clowns aren’t getting back into the clown car and leaving the circus.  No, siree.  They will have all three rings filled with tomfoolery.

And I don’t want to be one of those people who says which side won or lost, but I will say this:  If there is a black man in the White House when this is over, Republicans did not get what they really wanted.

Thanks to Kyle, who called me with the heads up because I still don’t have email.