Shared Responsibility: Axelrod Says This Was 'A Tea Party Downgrade'

Just pathetic. Let's see, tea partiers comprise a fraction of one third of our branches of government, but now apparently wield so much clout they're responsible for Obama's failures. Axelrod's boss apparently is in hiding since he hasn't said a word about the humiliating downgrade he's brought upon the nation.

Top Obama strategist David Axelrod criticized Republicans over their handling of the debt-ceiling negotiations which he argued led to Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the nation’s credit rating Friday.

This was a “tea party downgrade,” said Axelrod on CBS News’ Face the Nation.

Axelrod said S&P’s decision was “largely a political analysis.” “And that's what we should focus on because what they were saying is they want to see the political system work. They want to see a sense of compromise. They want to see the kind of solution that the president has been fighting for, a large solution that will deal with the problem, that will be balanced, that will include revenues.”

Instead, said Axelrod, conservative, Tea Party-influenced Republicans “played brinksmanship with the full faith and credit of the United States. And this was the result of that.”

“It was the wrong thing to do to push the country to that point” he said. “And it's something that should never have happened. And that clearly is on the backs of those who were willing to see the country default, those very strident voices in the tea party.”

Republicans’ handling of the debt debate “was atrocious and that contributed to [S&P’s] analysis,” he concluded.

Way to take responsibility.