Ellington

"The Democrats who control the Senate should come to the table and work with us in a spirit of cooperation to keep the government open and treat all Americans fairly." 

—U.S. Congressman Rep. Alan Nunnelee, a Republican, in an Oct. 1 statement.

Why it stinks: As Nunnelee's fellow Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have demonstrated over the past week, "cooperation" isn't the goal. Their actions, refusing to keep the federal government funded and running, amount to extortion.

The following day, Nunnelee said this to a reporter: "(Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid's refusal to negotiate is an arrogance that I haven't seen in this town."

Right. The height of arrogance is to repeatedly try and fail to repeal a law that Congress passed three years ago and the conservative U.S. Supreme Court largely upheld—a law that the American people voted for when they re-elected President Barack Obama. Now, they're holding the American people—and, some say, democracy itself—hostage to get their way.

Some GOPers are more truthful about what's going on. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., and Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., said the arrogance is piling up on the conservative side of the equation. "We're not going to be disrespected," Stutzman told reporters. " ... We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is."

Ross said this to The New York Times: "Republicans have to realize how many significant gains we've made over the last three years, and we have, not only in cutting spending but in really turning the tide on other things. We can't lose all that when there's no connection now between the shutdown and the funding of Obamacare. I think now it's a lot about pride."