If Congress manages to pass a feeble, last minute, deal on taxes it will be a deal that is long overdue.

All of this could have been avoided.

Instead of leadership we have been forced to endure brain dead leadership from a sore loser party.

It is embarrassing for America.

It signals another two years of Republicans putting Party and the wealthiest Americans that bankroll the GOP before America.

They are recidivists at putting the US economy, and by extension the global economy, in unnecessary peril.

It is one thing to manufacture a crisis, then solve it. That is an old trick.

Republican leaders have put a new twist on that old trick: They have manufactured a debt crisis and the so-called “fiscal cliff” that we face tonight. In fact, the sequester (the massive across the board spending cuts that go into effect) was the GOP solution to the debt crisis.

Republicans have had opportunity after opportunity to avoid the tax increases that go into effect if Congress fails to act. Not only have they been unable to agree with Democrats but they have been unable to agree with themselves. When Speaker Boehner offered a Plan B alternative he had to pull it because even Republicans would not vote for it.

Now we face a twelve hour opportunity for Congress to act on something that should have been passed weeks ago.

If we do go over the cliff at midnight Republicans will be unable to get the same deal they can get now.

But GOP members seem more concerned with keeping a promise they made to Grover Norquist not to vote to raise taxes. Instead they prefer to violate the trust of their constituents, harm the national economy and get a smaller tax deal after rates go up.

Getting a worse deal because you fear an extremist right-wing interest group is the reason that almost a quarter of Republicans feel that their own party is too extreme.

It is also further proof that the GOP’s biggest problem is that the people running the party are practicing brain dead politics.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.