House Majority Leader Eric Cantor attempts to humiliate Democrats with photo-op. Gets mocked mercilessly instead.

Okay so the photo-op above, of the Republican's bicameral conference committee, was arranged by Eric Cantor to indicate that they were ready to negotiate a deal with the Senate Democrats on passing a CR. (It should be pointed out, once again, that the Continuing Resolution that the Senate has agreed to keep in place, and the House has rejected, contains the sequestration cuts that the House Republicans forced upon the American people the LAST TIME they pulled a stunt like this. Essentially it is already a capitulation by the Democrats in order to keep the government funded.)

The purpose of course is to give the impression that the House Republicans are the reasonable ones, and it is Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats who are responsible for the government shutdown.

This from the New York Daily News:

Cantor gathered the group, which included House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., and House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., for a photo-op and to signal that the Republicans were waiting to open the line of communication. 

"Come talk to us," Cantor pleaded. 

"All of us here, sitting at a table (are) waiting for Senate Democrats to join us so we can begin to resolve our differences," Cantor added. 

To which Harry Reid appropriately responded:

"Shutting down the government is deadly serious. Republicans seem more interested in organizing stunts with empty chairs."

And boy do the Republicans love their empty chairs.

Rachel Maddow on her show last night revealed the duplicity of this action however, by revealing that Senator Patty Murray has been asking for just such a meeting for months, eighteen times in fact, and they have always refused.

So yeah, this was nothing more than another bullshit move to dodge responsibility and lay the blame for the shutdown on the Democrats.

And it probably worked on those conservatives who really want this to be true, but not so muhc on the rest of the American people.

One of who tweeted this graphic to demonstrate his disgust.

The Republicans are working overtime to kill Obamacare in its cradle, and then blame the resulting political mess on the Democrats. But that only works if we aren't paying attention.

I am paying VERY close attention. And so are a lot of Americans who sent tons of money to the Democrats yesterday in frustration over the shutdown.

The train wreck was never Obamacare, the train wreck was what was going to be left of the Republican party AFTER Obamacare.