BY JOE CONASON In their ideological zeal, the new Republicans on Capitol Hill seem eager to gamble everything – the financial reputation of the United States, the international status of the dollar, even the chance of a worldwide depression – on a showdown over the national debt ceiling. What has been mostly a routine if unpleasant debate in years past, with each party blaming the other for the nation’s rising indebtedness, is rapidly becoming a […]