Ever since Karl Rove did his subpeona-dodge to Fox News, the Republican party has lost control of the message. Witness this scenario - the president does extrordianary bi-partisan outreach, the stimulus bill is revised with Republican input in mind even though their votes really weren't needed. Republicans vote in lock-step against the bill. Even some Democrats vote against it. It still passes.
Message: no matter what concessions you make to us, we're taking our tiny ball and going home.
That'll teach those Democrats! Specifically, it'll teach them to stop making concessions. Which is too bad because I happen to prefer bi-partisan input into governing. I like compromise - it leads to better, fairer laws.
Republicans have to realize that they can't keep bluffing while they are holding a pair of 2s. Otherwise, they can just expect more bad hands for a long, long time to come. Maybe we'll wind up with a 3 party system - Democrats, Republicans and Far - Right Republicans, who think those plain Repblicans are terrorist crypto-socialists and won't even speak to them. Democrats, who'll include any weirdo at the drop of a hat, won't split up like that. So maybe it'll be a 40/20/20 distribution. And one of those 20's is going to insist on Palin-Bolton for 2012.
Count on me for a contribution!
Piker, what three things are you most excited about in the Stimulus Bill?
ReplyDeleteWhat three things do you point to as fantastic, needed legislation to save our economy?
Discussing the merits of the bill is a way to sidestep discussing the merits of the Republican strategy.
ReplyDeleteSo you can't point to anything in the Bill that you are giddy over?
ReplyDeleteOur strategy is to not support a bill that we are not convinced is going to do the right things to help the economy.
You mean that all the Republican members of congress, every last one of them, decided that there was nothing in the bill that would stimulate the economy and voted their conscience? Could be. I can't read minds, only probabilities.
ReplyDeleteIf that's the case, then we'll probably see a little more movement in the coming months on some of the other issues.
I wouldn't say there was nothing, but that the bad far outweighed the good. Because of that, they voted against it.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you read the Peggy Noonan piece over at my place today. She hits the nail on the head.
Any Republican that would vote for this unstimulus bill should be sent home packing. There ARE NO JOBS in this "stimulus" bill. Its ALL payoffs to Obama's pals.
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to vote for socialism, you should become a Democrat.