0 obama care. if you're scoring this at home, it's the 40th time the republican-led house voted to of repeal is, defund or cripple the law. it is government by tantrum meaningless. meaningless measures, meaningless roll calls, meaningless speeches as they say down in texas, it's all hat and no cattle. republicans are united against obama care when it comes to votes like this one, but a warring faction of tea party republicans led by ted cruz of texas are making it very real threat to shut down the u.s. government if the law is not killed. apparently the strategy is being lambasted as silly, dumb, unachievable and political suicide. and the people saying those words are not democrats, it's the republicans in congress who are saying those things. and those criticisms are delicate compared to what's in today's "washington post." charles krauthammer, a pulitzerer price winning conservative columnist says cruz belongs to the loony bin. "and this is krauthammer, this is nuts. every physical showdown has rebounded against the republicans. those who fancy themselves tea party patriots fighting a sold out cocktail swilling establishment are demanding yet another cliff dive as a show of principle. and manliness. but there's no principle at stake here. this is about tactics. if i thought this would work, i would support it, but i don't fancy suicide. it has a tendency to be fatal." as for manliness, the real question here is sanity, nothing could better revibe the fortunes of a failing, flailing fading democratic administration than a government shutdown where the president is portrayed as standing up to the gop on honoring our debts and paying our soldiers in the field. wow. also in the "washington post" today, michael gershon, a former george w. bush speech write are says cruz views this as the last stand against obama care, a conservative alamo instead, it would be a little bighorn. cruz bids to become a custer for our time, an actual shutdown of the government the only realistic outcome of his strategy would work for conservatives only if voters blamed it on obama's intransigence. so americans would need to side with the faction of a disdained institution pursuing a budgettarily maneuver that will many republican maneuvers regard as desperate and doomed. joining us now are two political analysts, david corn of mother jones and sam stein with the "huffington post." sam, what probably brought this to a head? what finally got people like gershon and krauthammer and others i sim out there over the prairie to say we'd better be careful. if cruz gets control of the opposition here of the republican party, we may be in trouble. >> i think it was the sheer overtness of it. it wasn't as if he was trying to set the stage for a government shutdown. he was sort of actively courting it. and when you're trying to shut than the member of congress who kowtowed to him. john boehner had said let's be reasonable, she would have shouted her down. this guy shouted her down. >> props to tim murphy for reporting this first actually. that was very great to jump on that. it gets to the question we've been talking about. ted cruz is not playing for people who are worried about shutting down the government. he's playing towards the republican base and. >> the birthers. he was out with gohmert the other day, one of the wildest of the birthers. >> the pew study foundation came out with a study the other day asking republicans, do you think your party is going in the right direction or not. most said no. but 54% said they wanted it to be more conservative. so that's what he's doing. this is all setting up 2016 and becoming the nominee or the champion of the guy who asked that question. >> well, that's the great question, sam. is more conservative meaning buying into people who say the president's foreign born, seize an american-hating communist yet. this is just september. we're going to default and the chinese will go crazy and ask for their money back. >> yep. >> could be zmirngs, of course. >> is there a tipping point where obama become serenaded by the middle of the country as our only hope. >> the last showdown, republicans and public opinion polls lost more ground than obama. the guys trying to force this on the republican side don't care. as i said before, they're in favor of chaos, destruction. they want to be an oppositional force, not a governing force. that's where the civil war is in the republican party. >> i love you getting that tape. it shows a lot. that's who they're allied with, the earbirthers and thes. if that guy wants to come on the show, come on. we'll talk to you. >> a lot of people were asking why was a man who has admitted his monstrous guilt allowed this big moment in the spotlight and the racial divide we saw in the zimmerman trial is reflected in how people think about the stand your ground law. whites support it by the same measure african-americans oppose it. it's obviously it's tied in to the trial. and you've seen the most interesting man in the world. now the man behind the most interesting man ads is out there doing something, well, interesting. he looks interesting. and let me finish tonight with a jobless rate that's down but not enough. this is "hardball," the place for politics. peoi go to angie's listt for all kinds of reasons. to gauge whether or not the projects will be done in a timely fashion and within budget. sunday is a regular workday in the muslim world. a state department spokesperson says the embassies are being closed out of an abundance of caution. we'll be right back. plan the va. 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