Roskam, House Chief Deputy Whip, told BuzzFeed late monday night that the current gridlock affecting congress can be compared to a scene out of the classic film The Godfather:
"This is just like The Godfather. You know the scene where Michael Corleone is learning how to kill the crooked New York cop? The guy teaching him, Clemenza, comforts him and says 'This thing's gotta happen every few years or so. It helps to get rid of the bad blood.' That is what arguing over all this is like."
Clemenza teaching Michael about "bad blood."
In the scene Roskam is referring to, Michael Corleone is being taught by a close family friend Peter Clemenza how to murder a New York police chief and rival mobster. Clemenza teaches him how to fire a Smith & Wesson Model 36 and instructs him on what to do after the killing. Michael asks what things will be like after the killing and Clemenza says:
Pretty goddamn bad. Probably all the other Families will line up against us. That's alright --this thing's gotta happen every five years or so -- ten years -- helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one. You know you got to stop them at the beginning, like they should have stopped Hitler at Munich, They should never've let him get away with that. They were just asking for big trouble.
The Smith & Wesson Model 36 Michael is learning to shoot.
And Michael eventually gets the job done.
When asked if there where any other Godfather analogies for the contentious congressional battle that is careening toward government shutdown, Roskam said, "We made the Senate an offer they can't refuse."
And this is Harry Reid right now:
