It’s even more official: a Standards & Poor’s director explicitly pinned his company’s downgrade of US credit on Republicans and their Tea Party masters:

“People in the political arena were even talking about a potential default,” said Joydeep Mukherji, senior directior at S&P. “That a country even has such voices, albeit a minority, is something notable,” he added. “This kind of rhetoric is not common amongst AAA sovereigns.”

TPM put together a handy list of “Who’s Really Responsible For U.S. Debt Downgrade”—including Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Paul Ryan, supercommittee member Pat Toomey and other GOPpers who were “either vouchsafing default, or downplaying the consequences of passing the August 2 deadline without raising the debt limit.”

Keep the list close as they scramble away from deep, deep convictions.