Obama tried to charm them, Rush tried to bully them. And the results are in. Round 1 goes by unanimous decision to Rush Limbaugh. Not one House Republican voted with the president on the stimulus package even after his "charm offensive."
These guys are the barbarians at the gate, there's no charming them. President Obama went to visit them, he invited them over to the White House, he had drinks with them, he stood by while they bad-mouthed Congressional Democrats, he adjusted the bill for them, he cut out the contraception education and he added tax cuts. In the end, what did he get for his efforts? A big fat doughnut. Nothing.
Not one House Republican voted for his stimulus package. 177-0.
On the other side, they went groveling over to Rush, tripping over themselves to court his favor and take his tongue-lashings (how grotesque does that sound?). In the end, he got them all (and all the national attention -- which was his true goal).
Now, Obama might be playing a chess match here. He might be positioning himself politically to be able to say to the American people, "Now look, I tried to be bi-partisan. I did all I could. And they did not budge. They are obstinate, partisan and obstructionist." He would have an excellent case to make.
Maybe he is that smart. But I believe he was also partly naïve enough to believe that he could convince them. That they would listen to reason. That they would be swayed by his compromises. That's not how they roll.
The maddening part of all this is that the stimulus package, in my opinion, is bloated, vague and rushed. Does anyone really know how we are going to spend $819 billion? Let alone how we're going to pay for it? Has anyone done the analysis on whether spending $142 billion on education by the federal government is efficient or necessary? Could we have made do with $132 billion?
Instead, the Republicans went the same old tired route - more tax cuts. They have not had an original idea in at least 30 years. Look, we tried endless tax cuts under Bush. Did that seem to do the trick?
Why not argue for spending the money in a constructive and judicious way? Why not pick a project to get behind and say we should concentrate on that for job creation? It could even be green energy because they could argue it is to reduce our dependence on foreign oil for national security reasons - and it creates new, sustainable jobs. They would get huge points for being bold and actually caring about an issue for a change. But that would be constructive. And the Republicans don't do constructive.
What Obama said to the Muslim world in his inaugural address, he could have just as well said to the Republican Party, "People will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy."
UPDATE -- Vote in the AOL Hot Seat Poll on whether Obama was smart or naive here.
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Stimulus Package Passes With Zero Republican Support
A nearly $820 billion stimulus package passed the House of Representatives Wednesday without a single Republican vote. The bill now moves to the Senate, where...
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GOP Rep: We Can't Be "The Party Of No"
In an editorial in Politico, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor says that Republicans can't simply be the "no" party. At a moment when the country...
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Dems Play Hardball: Target Republican Senators For Stimulus Support (VIDEO)
Democrats are planning to aggressively target vulnerable Republican Senators on the stimulus package passed by the House Wednesday night without any GOP support. Greg Sargent...
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Just When You Think You Can't Be Shocked By GOP Hypocrisy
The same political Neanderthals that helped execute their disastrous strategy of the last two election cycles are still firmly in control of House Republicans.
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GOP Demands the Right to Keep Screwing Up the Economy
It's all those crafty Republican economic plans that got us in this national economic disaster in the first place.
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The 200 Million Dollar Question
Republicans staged a temper tantrum last week over spending $200 million on contraceptive coverage. It turns out such a request wasn't even included in the stimulus.
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Obama Had To Try Bipartisanship This Time -- Next Time Will Be Different
Obama tried to go the extra mile, made compromises, tried to be bipartisan within the context of an election which Democrats won. And what did he get? Literally, nothing. Not one Republican vote. Not one.
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34 GOP Senators Oppose the Recovery Plan, Caving to Their Demands is Useless
GOP Senators are now pretending they'll vote for the economic recovery package if only those unreasonable Democrats would toss them a bone or two. For the most part, they are lying.
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ACORN: The Bogeyman in the GOP Closet
Right-wing media outlets are pick up the ridiculous talking points from the GOP leadership attacking Obama's stimulus package by claiming that it gives ACORN a $4.19 billion bailout. Puh-lease, people!
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Food for Thought for Next RNC Chairman
Republicans has to understand that its decline is about more than properly marketing its ideas or improving its technological deficiencies -- it's about aligning itself with the national ideology.
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Will Republican "Moderates" Allow Themselves to be Used by the Right to the Gut Obama Jobs Program?
Senators Collins, Snowe and Gregg all represent areas that have been hard hit by the recession. Will they prove themselves true "moderates" who represent the interests of New England's working families?
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Rethinking the Stimulus
Measures included in the stimulus bill should be the beginnings of a new policy regime that works to include more Americans in the middle class, not a passing reprieve in a time of economic gloom.
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Put Our Economy Back on Track
Every day of delay is a day when more Americans get a pink slip. Let's hope that Senate Republicans stand with the President during this crisis rather than playing politics like the House GOP.
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Beware Speaker Pelosi: Boehner Knows How to Play Offense
If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pays attention, all she needs to hear has already been laid out before her. The Republican leadership resents her.
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Republicans in the House Are Behaving Like the Collapse of Bush's Policies Never Happened
While Republicans are free to oppose Obama's solutions to the financial mess if they think they have better ideas, merely advocating the old failed policies should not be tolerated.
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House GOP Tries to Raise Money Off Opposing Economic Help for Everyone Else
Republicans still have done nothing to accept responsibility for their own conservative failures. Their proposed alternative is literally more of the same Bush tax cuts that helped create the current mess.
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Rush Limbaugh: "I Think Obama Wants Me To Fail"
Rush: "if Obama is the nominee, we are doomed" - Sean Hannity ...
