Appearing on MNSBC's "Morning Joe," Tennessee Senator Bob Corker — who most recently made headlines for taking on Texas's Ted Cruz on the Senate floor in the days before the government shutdown — admitted his party was "in a bad place," but maintained optimism that a deal would be found before the government's debt ceiling deadline of October 17.
While Corker was willing to acknowledge Republicans' unenviable political state, the senator opted to take the high road when Time's Mark Halperin asked what were Ted Cruz's "two main accomplishments" since becoming a U.S. senator. "I'll let you guys deal with that," Corker said, visibly uncomfortable. "It is actually uncouth [for] one senator to pile on in that way," he demurred. "I will say we’ve ended up in the boxed canyon that I proclaimed we would end up in several months ago."
Devastating polls released this month show Republicans taking the brunt of the blame for the shutdown, while reaching historic lows in favorability. President Obama and the Democrats have also slid in the polls, but to a far lesser degree. In addition, the president’s healthcare law has seen a boost in the polls since the shutdown.
Still, Corker argued that Democrats had “overreached” in recent negotiations by proposing to exceed previously agreed upon budget caps. He said that because the fight had turned from defunding ObamaCare to spending, that there was once again “tremendous amounts of unity among Senate Republicans.”
“You know this exercise, we’ve taken a little bit of a rabbit trail to a place that wasn’t helpful but I think we’re back where we need to be,” Corker said.
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