(Amma, the Hugging Saint, doing her thing in Reston, VA, this week.)

The good folks of Minnesota are dealing with their ninth day of the closure of their government this morning, as the last Shuttle mission orbits overhead, and Betty Ford checks out of her clinic and off the planet.

Bless them all. The Golden Gophers are showing us what lies ahead if our purported grown-ups do not get their collective shit together.

I am so relieved not to be on the road. I felt my mental image coming into sharper focus yesterday at the office. The radio kept burbling about the employment numbers- 18,000 jobs created in the month, a really crappy number that it is impossible on which to put a positive spin.

Not that the President, bless him, didn’t try this morning. He said we might be turning a corner, but I think it might be in the opposite direction from what he intimated. Some folks have been out of work for so long they have stopped looking.

The President has not had a lucky week. He had to cancel the vacation out in Whitefish, Montana, where Mr. Cheney used to hunt lawyers. Michele and the girls needed a break after taking a break in Africa.

The shenanigans over the debt ceiling had me seeing red through the solid dark clouds that rolled in from the west and lashed the city yesterday afternoon. I had to search the trunk of the Hubrismobile to find my old Harvard umbrella to get to Willow unscathed.

Tracy O’Grady was standing at the bar in her shite chef’s blouse, pressing the flesh with the usual suspects, and positively glowing. She had just completed an all night vigil with the Hugging Saint at the Hyatt Regency in Reston.

I was impressed. I had read about the visit but not known anyone who was spiritual enough to go. The Saint’s name is Amma, and she is conducting a humanitarian tour of North America, She normally works in her native India, managing charities that raise millions for medical care, disaster relief, and women’s education.

“They say she had a goal of hugging 5,000 souls here in Northern Virginia, adding to the 31 million she has thus far hugged around the world.  When she hugged me, it just five in the morning. It filled me up,” said Tracy. “I just started crying. It was just so beautiful. It was pure love.”

“We could use some of that here in DC,” I said.

“The Dali Lama is coming next week,” observed John-with-an-H. “My Member was good buds with him when I was up on the Hill. He is a good guy, too, besides being the living example of the Godhead.”

“I remember when the White House had him use the back door to leave his audience with the President,” I said. “They didn’t want to irritate the Chinese. That was during the big snow storm and the trash had not been collected, and there was the image of the Spiritual Leader of all Tibet with the garbage. What a way to treat a head of state.”

“He cracked up. Like I said, he is a real guy.”

“There were hundreds of people waiting in line for their hug with Amma,” said Tracy. “There was music playing and the smell of incense. Then Amma reached out her arms and embraced me. It felt like my relationship with the Spirit,” she said. Her face was serene.

“Far out,” I said. “We could all use some serenity around here.”

Tracy smiled beatifically, and made her way back toward the kitchen. Holly-with-a-Y topped up our glasses and John-with glowered at me. “You know the President is in league with the radical Republicans in speeding to the brink (and beyond). I firmly believe that Harry Reid and the Dems believe they can tag the Tea Party Republicans with the default, just as Mr. Clinton tagged Newt with the government shut-down and continue to blame the Bush administration for his accumulated and spectacular errors.”

“Oh, come on,” I said.

Jon-without looked over and said he thought there was something to it. “Remember the Cloward-Pivin strategy,” he said thoughtfully.

“What was that?” I asked.

John-with to my right chortled. “It is the radical strategy to get so many people on welfare that the system collapses and the vanguard of the Proletariat arrives to save the day with enlightened Socialism.”

“Weren’t those two sociologists from Chicago? And wasn’t that what Saul Alinksy wrote about in his book ‘Rules for Radicals’?”

“You guys are paranoid,” I said. “There couldn’t be anyone dumb enough to want to shut down the government like in Minnesota.”

“There is a track record for it,” said John-with. “Mr. Clinton was hurt by the 1995-96 antics, though his poll-numbers rebounded to the highest of his eight year tenure thereafter, based on the perception of his leadership through the crisis. Obama is going to try the same thing.”

“Holy crap,” I said. “But this isn’t going to be a shut down if they don’t raise the debt ceiling. It is going to be a freaking default of the US Treasury.”

“Fox News said the Republicans don’t really know what will happen if there is a default. Some of them don’t think it will be a big deal,” said Jon-without.

“I would argue that they have their heads up their butts,” I said. “Minnesota seems to be just fine without a government. They can go on until tomorrow, or next week. The idea that we can’t sell bonds to pay the interest on our debt is something completely different. It will be an utter disaster. In a shut-down, we furlough unessential workers, but the social security checks get paid, right? If you default, social security doesn’t get paid. That is half of what Raven and Big Mama get by on. If the Government defaults, they default and they are out in the parking lot at Potemkin Village.”

“Failing to raise the debt ceiling in a timely way would be self-defeating if the objective is to chart a course toward a better fiscal situation for our nation,” said John-with.

“Don’t be so freaking pompous, John. You sound like that idiot Bernanke at the Fed who helped get us into this mess.”

John-with looked dolorous. “Even a short suspension of payments on principal or interest on the Treasury’s debt obligations could cause severe disruptions in financial markets and the payments system,” he said. “It could downgrade U.S. government debt, create fundamental doubts about the creditworthiness of the United States, and damage the special role of the dollar and Treasury securities in global markets in the longer term. So there.”

John-with drained his happy hour white. “I think I will drive down to Layton Hall in Clarendon for dinner. The waitresses are cute. I can take a cab back if I get too bombed.”

“I think I will go home and get in the pool.”

Jon-without frowned. “I think we all need a good hug,” he said.

Copyright 2011 Vic Socotra
www.vicsoctra.com