The Morning Plum: Conservatives surrendering in debt ceiling fight?

By Greg Sargent, WashPost, Updated: January 15, 2013

The obsession with the platinum coin has distracted media figures from what is a far more important story: The slow realization sinking in among Republicans and conservatives that they are losing the debt ceiling fight.

We’ve already heard from Newt Gingrich and the Wall Street Journal edit board that the threat of default puts the GOP in a terrible political position. John Boehner has admitted that the debt ceiling is not the party’s primary source of leverage in the fiscal talks. Mitch McConnell has refused to say whether he stands behind Boehner’s continued insistence (despite his acknowledgment of weak leverage) that any debt ceiling hike shouldn’t happen without spending cuts of the same magnitude.

Today, in another step forward, the National Review calls on Republicans to take the threat of default off the table:

Republicans should recognize that the prospect of default is the Democrats’ chief weapon in their campaign of avoidance. That prospect is not a source of Republican leverage in the debt-ceiling fight; it is the primary source of the Democrats’ leverage. It is a way to distract the press and the public from the reality of our fiscal crisis.

(More here.)