Republicans are so damned annoying

By Richard K. Barry

The Hill writes today that Republicans have settled on a message to attack Democrats on the shutdown.

Polls show more people are blaming the GOP for the shutdown than the White House, but Republicans think their work on a stream of bills that would fund specific parts of the government is helping them build a narrative of Democratic intransigence.

[...]

“Republicans have figured out a strategy, by sending rifle-shot bills to open different parts of the government, that has put Democrats into a box of saying no. By voting no repeatedly it allows Republicans an excellent messaging opportunity of painting Democrats as refusing to negotiate,” says Ron Bonjean, a top GOP strategist.

I get that in politics it's not typically a good idea to overestimate the intelligence of the American people, but how stupid do you have to be to be fooled by this?  Republicans first shut down the government and then argue that they ought to decide, piecemeal, what gets funded and what doesn't. 

So far, it's not working as a Fox News poll shows 42 percent of voters blaming the GOP, with 32 percent blaming Democrats, while a CBS poll found the split at 44 percent to 35 percent.

The thing that is potentially dangerous, as Bonjean points out,  is that every time a vulnerable Democrat votes no on any "re-funding" proposal, a campaign ad is being written. 

All that being said, I'll ask along with everyone else, what's the endgame?