It’s really apparent from all the back and forth that is going on between the House, Senate and the President that nothing will be done because of the egos involved and the worry about who gets the credit.

So a modest suggestion here for the RS folks that are more adept than I in new media:
— Use a politically neutral social media site to post 4 or 5 alternatives to ending the shutdown, with attributing the plan to either party or individuals who may have been promoting it. Simply explain the ideas as clearly and neutrally as possible.
— Ask folks to “like” the one they do and to gather as many others to the ‘poll’ as possible by Tuesday.
— Use the results to encourage the Tea Party, RS Heritage for Action or anyone else to melt phone lines to ALL the Senators and Representatives, telling them to get behind the winning plan or be primaried — and the first one that tries to claim credit for the idea will be driven from office.

From past polls and news stories, when people hear what is being proposed by the GOP members of the House and Senate, they usually like what they hear until they understand the “branding” — which is why we suffered through all the dialog about ‘rebranding the party’ earlier this year.

What I’m suggesting is a ‘blind audition’ or ‘blind taste test’ that we can develop some consensus around without getting tripped up by the egos and labels. I fully believe that we could develop some support this way.

I also think that one of the plans should be to incrementally fund the government and extend the debt limit as the reward for successfully enacting what’s needed – a one year delay of Obamacare gets 90 days more spending; Elimination of the death tax gets another 90 days, etc. Carrot/Stick is all that can work in this climate, and we need to make the choices work in our direction, not the Democrats.

But the trick is that the Republicans in both Houses have to work together — something they don’t seem willing to do at this point.  This is where they have to be reminded of Reagan’s axiom of getting things done without worrying about who gets the credit.