House of Horrors

There are real stories accompanying this New Yorker cover, but the one that sums up the national mood is a previous post by Andy Borowitz, titled Poll: Americans Divided Over What Wild Animal They Would Like To See Congress Mauled By:

"While a majority of Americans say they would enjoy seeing Congress torn limb from limb by a ferocious bear, there is disagreement over which species of bear would be best suited for that assignment.

But the poll showed that there was also strong support for the idea of Congress being set upon by a pack of rapacious animals, with rabid hyenas the first choice of many respondents, followed by feral dogs and cats.

While insatiable, bloodthirsty mammals were most often cited as the animals Americans would like to see eviscerate Congress, there was significant support for another scenario, involving Congress being consumed by a swarm of predatory insects."

One of the actual stories is about the 14th amendment, especially apropos since--and this is not satire--a GOPer congressman who supports the party's position threatening default has said that if default actually happens, Obama might be impeached for failing to guarantee the full faith and credit of the U.S.

At his press conference, Henrick Hertzberg notes, President Obama said that invoking the 14th amendment is so legally controversial that it would not end insecurity and doubt in the market, and so would not leave the economy undamaged.

But if default were really going to happen, H. writes, Obama's best option might still be the 14th amendment:

"In the end, Obama could have no honorable choice but to invoke the Fourteenth. There is little doubt that he would prevail. The Supreme Court would be unlikely even to consider the matter, since no one would have standing to bring a successful suit: when the government pays its bills, who is damaged? The House Republicans might draw up articles of impeachment, adopt them, and send them to the Senate, where the probability of a conviction would be zero. This would not be a replay of Bill Clinton and the intern. President Clinton was not remotely guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, but he was guilty of something, and that something was sordid. Yet impeachment was what put Clinton on a glide path to his present pinnacle as a wildly popular statesman. President Obama would be guilty only of saving the nation’s economy, and the world’s."