Are we entering the Post-coalition age of American politics?

Probably not, but...

Of the many bizarre turns of the past few weeks, the one that really shocked me was the Republicans agreeing to a deal that will very probably end up gutting the Pentagon's budget. Over less that a year, the GOP has alienated seniors by threatening Medicare, scared the hell out of the financial sector with a threatened shut down, and pissed off the military and related industries by disproportionately targeting defense for deficit reduction.

Perhaps this simply fear of Tea Party retaliation or perhaps the party's stated concern for the deficit was more sincere than most of us realized, but either way this pushes the current political situation even further out of the range of data.

Check out Jonathan Chait's sharp summary here.