I'm curious to see how long Boehner holds himself and his party to the 'adult' standard ~  ~ Sooz

RISKING 'THE FIRST DEFAULT IN HISTORY CAUSED PURELY BY INSANITY'.... In mid-November, after the dust had settled from the midterm elections, incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) acknowledged that he's well aware of the fact that his chamber is going to have to extend the federal debt limit. He noted that's already "made it pretty clear" to his own caucus that Republicans are "going to have to deal with it as adults."

Boehner added, "Whether we like it or not, the federal government has obligations and we have obligations on our part."

Dealing with the debt limit "as adults" doesn't appear to be going well. This morning, two right-wing lawmakers -- Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Rep.-elect Mike Kelly (R-Minn.) -- reiterated their opposition to raising the debt limit on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Soon after, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that failing to raise the debt ceiling "would be very bad for the position of the United States in the world at large." Graham, however, quickly followed that by saying he's prepared to hold the debt limit hostage "until a plan is in place" for the nation's long-term fiscal challenges that meets his satisfaction.

So much for dealing with this "as adults."

Austan Goolsbee, chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, doesn't sound pleased with the direction of Republican rhetoric.

Goolsbee added, "If we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.... There would be no reason for us to default, other than that would be some kind of game."

No doubt aware that global markets might pay attention to the U.S. political discourse, and may not fully appreciate the stupidity and recklessness of Republican tactics, Goolsbee went on to say, "We shouldn't even be discussing that. People will get the wrong idea. The United States is not in danger of default.... We do not have problems such as that. This would be lumping us in with a series of countries through history that I don't think we would want to be lumped in with."

Goolsbee also said, "I don't see why anybody's talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling." If only more congressional Republicans had the wisdom and maturity to think the same way.

Were you as critical of the Democrats in 2006 when every Democrat in the Senate voted against a necessary increase in the the debt ceiling?

It's always a political football, and it's used by the party out of power in the White House to extract concessions from the White House.

WHAT PASSES FOR 'REASONABLE'.... Following up on an item we touched on briefly yesterday, it's worth appreciating in more detail a comment Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made on "Meet the Press " yesterday.

Graham was asked about raising the federal debt limit, and he acknowledged that failure to do so "would be very bad for the position of the United States in the world at large." Graham added, however, that he's nevertheless inclined to play a radical game of chicken, with the economy and the stability of the United States' role in the global financial system hanging in the balance:

As Jonathan Cohn notes, Graham realizes that the results of this could be catastrophic, "But that's not stopping him from making his demands. And that's particularly disheartening, since he is supposed to be one of the more reasonable members of the Republican Senate caucus."

There's nothing subtle about Graham's gambit here. It's the latest in a series of Republican hostage strategies: either (a) Democrats agree to cut Social Security and slash funding for education and health care; or (b) Graham and his cohorts will deliberately gut the full faith and credit of the United States government, and send the global economy into a catastrophic tailspin.

And as far as the political mainstream goes, President Obama is supposed to be able to work with "reasonable" Republicans like Graham, who's ostensibly less extreme than many of his GOP colleagues.

It's going to be a long two years.