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There are brief, fleeting moments in which I feel something akin to sadness regarding John Boehner, the orange-hued political castrato currently engaged as The Maitre d' In Bedlam. It is not his fault that he is so terrible at the job of wrangling the insane. Not everyone has that peciuliar gift. He was handed the gavel in 2010 as leader of the worst Congress elected in the history of the Republic. In return, he placed his balls snugly in a Mason jar that is buried somewhere on the grounds of the Heritage Foundation, and then a substantial portion of his Congress threw a hooley and burned the map that showed where the jar was.

Then, I think to myself, hell, fk, no. You asked for this.

In meetings with Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders on Thursday after a session with Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew on Wednesday, Mr. Boehner sought a resumption of negotiations that could keep the government running and yield a deficit-reduction deal that would persuade recalcitrant conservatives to raise the government's borrowing limit. Much of the federal government will shut down as of Oct. 1 unless Congress approves new spending bills to replace expiring ones, and by mid-October, the Treasury Department will lose the borrowing authority to finance the government and pay its debts. "It's time for the president's party to show the courage to work with us to solve this problem," said Mr. Boehner, who argued that budget deals have been part of past agreements to raise the debt limit.

The Democratic party has been derelict in so many areas over the last 30 years that listing them all would take us well past the four o'clock NFL games on Sunday. But one of the primary areas has been the Democratic party's curious reluctance to make the Republican party pay the fearsome price it ought to pay for having become, root and branch, utterly demented. Since this country has decided, through decisions large and small, to have only two major political parties, when one of them sails gleefully around the bend, it is the solemn and vitally important obligation of the opposition to beat the crazy out of that party until it comes back to the pack. There has to be some serious political price to be paid for allowing people like Jim Infofe and Steve King to become persons of actual influence. There has to be some serious political price to be paid for the OCD regarding the Affordable Care Act. There has to be some serious political price to be paid for one party's refusal to help govern the country simply because said party is walking around with a rubber nose, floppy shoes, and a bird on its head. The Democratic party has been negligent in the extreme in its duty in these regards.

Until now.

This is something of a chance. John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, has come to Democratic politicians to ask for their help because enough members of his caucus are insane enough to send the national economy hurtling over a cliff rather than admit that the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. (Passed by Congress, Signed by the President. Upheld by the Supreme Court. That's the Civics Class Slam, children.) Witness the twist in this cluck's Underoos:

"Obamacare is the most dangerous piece of legislation ever passed in Congress," said Representative John Fleming, Republican of Louisiana. "It is the most existential threat to our economy" that the country has seen "since the Great Depression, so I think a little bit of additional deficit is nothing," he added.

This kind of raving lunacy was the driving force behind the 2010 midterms through which John Boehner got his job. Appeasing this kind of raising lunacy is the means through which John Boehner keeps his job. He knows it. They know it. The Democrats know it. So here's what the latter should do.

Nothing.

It is not -- repeat, not -- the responsibility of any Democrat to bail out John Boehner simply because he has a caucus full of flying monkeys. It was the responsibility of the Republican party, and of the people who vote for it, to turn off the Crazy spigot before things hit flood tide for the rest of us. It is the responsibility of the Democratic party to allow the Republican party to eat itself until the point at which enough of these people get nervous enough about their phony-baloney jobs to put out their own fire. It appears, however belatedly, that the administration and Harry Reid are beginning to understand this.

Mr. Lew and Congressional Democrats held firm that they would no longer negotiate on raising the debt ceiling, which they see as the duty of the party in power in the House. And they made it clear to the speaker that they would never accept Republican demands to repeal, defund or delay Mr. Obama's signature health care law. White House officials dismissed it as "a nonstarter." "I had to be very candid with him and I told him directly, all these things they're doing on Obamacare are just a waste of their time," said Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the Senate majority leader. "Their direction is the direction toward shutting down the government." "I like John Boehner," Mr. Reid added. "I do feel sorry for him."

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that, if the inmates run amuck, and the government gets shut down, or (worse) the debt ceiling gets blown up, the blame will fall like a very large sack of manure on the Republican party. The Democratic party should dare them. It should let this happen. (It should be noted that this is entirely a political assessment. The practical effect on all of us could really suck.) I mean, seriously, dig this mess.

Earlier this week, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 House Republican, proposed a two-step resolution to the fiscal impasse that was temporarily pushed into the background by Mr. Obama's request for approval to initiate a military strike on Syria, since delayed. Under Mr. Cantor's plan, the House would have voted this week on a stopgap spending bill to keep the government operating through mid-December at the current level, which reflects the sharp across-the-board cuts known as sequestration. That bill would have a companion resolution to withhold all money for the health care law, but the Senate could simply ignore that resolution and approve the short-term spending bill. Then the House would vote to raise the debt ceiling enough for a year of borrowing, but demand a year's delay in carrying out the health care law. Within 24 hours, the House's most ardent conservatives revolted, declaring the defunding resolution a gimmick that fell well short of their drive to undo the health care law.

(I have to admit that watching them turn on the weaselish Cantor is pretty hilarious. Casca and Metellus Cimber have the knives out for Cassius. This must be one of the few things that makes Boehner really happy these days.)

There will be voices of caution about how the Democrats have to be the grown-ups in the room because the country needs to be govern. But here's the thing -- the country's not being governed now. One half of the political system is under the effective control of people who believe their primary obligation as elected officials is to make sure the government doesn't work. The Democratic party must make no compromises with the insane. There is no legitimate middle-ground to be found in that tangle of bizarre tactics and political Tourette's. The only responsible thing to do is to make John Boehner either own the nutball caucus or stand up against it. The country demands this. Us or them, John. Time to choose. Whip's coming down.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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