Cheaters

Putting aside sexting on Twitter, how about trying to rig an election with a bunch of fake candidates?

Wisconsin state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) is standing by the state GOP's new strategy of recruiting fake Democratic candidates for the state Senate recalls -- which have been launched as a Democratic counter-attack on Gov. Scott Walker's anti-public employee union legislation -- in order to force Dem primaries and delay the general elections.

As for playing chicken with the Federal Debt Limit, the top GOP economist is telling his party not to play games:

Contradicting GOP lawmakers who have suggested a US default would not lead to economic disaster, a bipartisan group of budget officials warned on Tuesday that even a brief lapse in payments could trigger a crisis. Among them were Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former CBO director under President Bush and a frequently cited Republican economic advisor.

"It's a bad idea," Holtz-Eakin said at a panel discussion of former CBO heads in Washington. "Little defaults, big defaults; default's a bad idea period and there should be no one who believes otherwise."

Holtz-Eakin has supported the GOP's efforts to secure cuts in exchange for raising he debt ceiling, but made clear that at the end of the day it had to be raised. He cited numerous dangers from a default scenario, such as its effect on the bond market.

"The idea that somehow it's a pro-growth strategy to raise interest rates on a permanent basis in the United States is just crazy," he said. "We need to grow at this point more than anything else."

Let's face it, today's GOoPers are anything but adults:

Robert Reischauer, CBO director under Presidents Bush Sr. and Clinton, said while he could envision a scenario in which a sudden plunge in the stock market shocked both parties into compromising on a deal, it was too unstable and dangerous an approach to trifle with.

"Do I advocate that? No," he said. "Do I think that's risky? Yes. But we're looking for adult behavior here and seeing none. "

Republicans lawmakers have raised eyebrows in the bond market in recent weeks by suggesting that defaulting on US debt as part of a partisan standoff may not have major consequences for the economy. Last week Moody's warned Congress that even approaching the August 2 deadline that the Treasury Department has set before defaulting on their payments would lead them to downgrade US bonds.

Maybe they just want to sink the economy in hopes that that will be their ticket to a victory in 2012.

You know, the Global Depression strategy.