I think the GOP leaders all sit around in some smoke filled back room, with their drams of scotch or rye and talk tough, then one of them gets the notion that if they make their back room talk public everyone will join in and think "yea, that Mitch McConnell is a bad ass" but then it blows up in their face. My guess is that they all lose at poker regularly because they can't help but shoot off at the mouth and show their hands. Stupid? OMG, incredibly so.