How Purity Undermined the Vitter Strategy

From John Fund at NationalReview.com:

Conservatives will debate the lessons of the 2013 government shutdown for a long time. Here’s one of the last ones: When the call for retreat has been made, it’s still possible to salvage something.

Yesterday, key members of the House GOP leadership had decided to add Louisiana senator David Vitter’s amendment stripping Congress of the special health-care contributions legislators and their staff had under Obamacare to whatever the House sends over to the Senate. They concluded forcing Democrats to vote on it made good political and strategic sense: It would embarrass Democrats if they struck it down, and if it stood, it would improve conservative leverage in future negotiations. The reason? Members of Congress and their staffs really hate the idea of losing their taxpayer-funded health-care benefits (valued at up to $5,000 a year for individuals and $11,000 for families) when they go to shop on the health-care exchanges. In the Senate, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had declared his intention to demand a vote on the Vitter amendment no matter what the final shape of any budget or debt deal.

...(By)pushing for a vote on the Vitter amendment would have given conservatives something they could have used as a cudgel against Democrats and establishment Republicans who voted against it. A failure of imagination has for now taken that opportunity away.

You shouldn't reload and shoot your other foot.