Normally I would enjoy watching Republicans ripping each other apart, but it's hard to take any pleasure in this when the game they're all playing is so deadly serious and very dangerous for all of us. It seems Rep. Peter King isn't too impressed with Sen. Ted Cruz's grandstanding on defunding "Obamacare," or the senator telling the House how they should conduct their business.

Rep. King on defund plan: ‘Custer, Kamikaze’:

Rep. Peter King continued his vocal opposition to a plan by fellow Republicans to defund Obamacare by tying it to legislation to keep the government funded.

"Whether it’s Custer, whether it’s kamikaze, or whether it’s Gallipoli or whatever, we are going to lose this," the New York Republican said on CNN's "Situation Room." Gallipoli was a failed allied campaign during World War I.

King accused conservative Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and other GOP anti-Obamacare stalwarts of committing a “fraud against the American people” for arguing that the strategy will work.

“They know it’s not going to win and now it’s over to them in the Senate,” King said. “We’ll see what they do. Either put up or shut up.”

King remained resolute that the implicit threat of a shutdown is a nonstarter.

“We cannot let the government shutdown,” he said of the need to approve new funding legislation by October 1, the start of the next fiscal year. [...]

King hoped the debate would, perhaps, discredit some Republicans who he believes are steering the party in a destructive direction.

“We as House Republicans should stop letting Ted Cruz set our agenda for us,” King said.

“If he can deliver on this fine. If he can’t, then he should keep quiet from now on and we shouldn’t listen to him.”