I would agree that somebody is certainly wandering around in the deserts of a political fantasyland — but it ain’t the Republicans. Democrats like Schumer seem so absurdly convinced that Obama’s policies really would have worked better, if only Republicans would have cooperated and allowed Democrats to implement even more of them — because ObamaCare, and Dodd-Frank, and stimulus packages, and endless regulatory rulemaking have all been so wildly effective in turning the economic recession into the Longest “Recovery” Ever, isn’t it a shame we don’t have more of that? Via RCP:

Well, a lot of it, sort of “Alice in Wonderland.” He says the president’s policies haven’t worked, but he hasn’t let them go in to affect. He’s blocked just about every one. And I would say this, I have good news on the debt ceiling. … I do not believe that Republican leaders will follow Ted Cruz over the cliff once again. I believe we will pass a clean debt ceiling. That makes sense. We don’t want to risk full faith and credit. We can debate all these other issues at a different time and place, but I think they learned their lesson with the government shut down. Not only did Tea Party ratings plummet, but so did Republican Party ratings, and I think there’s a new way of thinking in the Senate and the House among Republicans so that we can get more done in 2014 than we did in 2013. They are not just going to mindlessly follow Ted Cruz and the Republicans over the cliff into this hard-line position, unless we get our way, we’re going to hurt innocent people whether by shutting down the government or not renewing the full faith and credit of the United States.

…Never mind, I suppose, that Democrats comprise half of this compromise-equation, but that they themselves are insisting that they get their way by taking a “hard-line position” on getting a clean debt-ceiling hike and are really the ones “hurting innocent people” in the first place by pushing for policies that consistently accelerate the pace at which the United States approaches its debt ceiling without any real attempts to address those unsustainable spending levels.

And speaking of Sen. Chuck Schumer, Tim Carney has a cringe-worthy damnation of his corruptocratic tendencies over at the Washington Examiner. Burn.