Shangri-la and Brigadoon and Bipartisan. Three mythical places. One of which few Republicans have seemingly ever heard. Because if there is one thing we can take from the first weeks of the "New" Washington, it's that the (liberal) Democrats are incompetent (old news, really) and the Republicans are disingenuous when it comes to bipartisanship. Oh, sure, they talk up the swellness of President Obama every chance they get. And will continue to do so as long as his approval numbers are above fifty percent. But most GOPers tend to become like children who dance hysterically in a sandbox when it comes time to play with others.
Despite all the sit-downs Obama had with the Republicans -- apparently too many for Speaker Pelosi's tastes -- and despite the fact that the House version of the Stimulus Bill contained specific tax breaks for which the Republicans had asked -- though not to the degree they wished -- not a single GOPer would break ranks, step up and vote for the bill. A surprisingly "my way or the highway" attitude for the minority party whose eight years of good cogitating was a major factor in whipping America into the stellar fiscal shape we find ourselves.
When three Republican Senators voted for the Senate version of the bill -- Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Maine Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan M. Collins, who in particular worked tirelessly with moderate Dem Sen. Ben Nelson to try and reach a true bipartisan compromise -- they were immediately put on a "hit" list by the conservative National Republican Trust PAC. The PAC's executive director Scott Wheeler stated: "We just want to send a message that we're going to have a long institutional memory, and we're going to remind your constituents of what you did."
What they did? What'd they do? Vote for a bill that might ultimately not be big enough to get the country out of the worst economic mess most Americans have ever lived through? Wouldn't it be punishment enough to dis-invite them to some soirée held at South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson's whites-only country club? To be fair, Dawson resigned his membership to the Forest Lake Country Club in Columbia, SC last September. That was just a gratuitous dig I had to throw in because... I wouldn't have been allowed into the club to hand it to him personally. But to the point of Trust PAC's tactics; sure, it's not unusual for one political party to target another political party over a vote. But for a party to head hunt their own...?
And then, of course, there's Judd Gregg. Never mind that Gregg himself lobbied for the job of commerce secretary, never mind New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch making a deal to appoint Republican J. Bonnie Newman to Gregg's seat. When it came time to engage in the greater good, Gregg, in his own words, realized he could not be a "team player." Worse, working with the president he "couldn't be Judd Gregg." Political solipsism if ever there was. Gregg being something like the T.O. to the Senate.
Regardless of the Republicans' centrist deceptions, I would hope that Obama continues to rise above and reach out. Hopefully there will be others such as Specter, Snowe and Collins who put the people's work above myopic party ideology. But if nothing else, as the economy improves, President Obama's actions will serve to shame the lip servers of bipartisanship into taking up true residence.
For more perspective, visit www.thatminoritything.com.
They wanted their ideas to be used in the bill. Their ideas are why the bill was needed. They have ruined this country with their ideas. They have hurt the people they claim to be for like small businesses who are mostly republican owned. The media has been showing businesses who are barely holding on but they never ask if the owner is a republican. Why they have any support left I'll never know because they have hurt everybody. Like being against National Healthcare which is a problem for the whole country. Rich and poor alike are being ripped off by our present system.
Who votes these people into office?
The Republican Party, in their unfathomable celebration of their defeat on the stimulus, are now plotting against their own members. As if Sen. Specter is going anywhere. As if Maine is going to be electing right-wing Republicans in this century. Don't forget the new target that Gov. Charlie Crist has on his back for supporting the stimulus and *gasp* appearing with Obama to do so publicly.
All these scare tactics will only lead to a further schism in a party that has for the most part already consigned itself to the Confederacy. Rather than figuring out how to win back the hearts and minds of the electorate (of all of America, not just the Matrix-like "Real America"), they are more interested in "finding their voice", which is a euphemism for doubling-down on their far right position and excommunicating all party members showing any dissent.
Feel free to let your party whittle itself even further into the dustbin of history, Mr. Steele. When you're all done, it may just be those moderate colleagues you target today who end up inheriting what's left of the GOP estate, and perhaps they'll even be able to rebuild the party into a national one.
This plan was drafted by the House, which is controlled by Democrats, and it had little or no imput from Replublicans. How is that bipartisan? Could it be that they did not vote for it for the same reasons the democrats did not support the invasion of Iraq? Because it was a thinly vield political agenda grafted on to a national crises by the party in power? I'm no fan of Republicans, but this bill is clearly a long list of Democrat projects that will do little to stimulate, grossly increase the size of govenment and the cost is passed on to our kids just like the Cons did with the Iraq war. How is that change?
PS. I'm still damn PROUD of my President, how 'bout you guys?!
I am sure Republicans know that and thus will make as much defeatist noise as possible.
Also, Senator Specter is in big trouble of losing his seat in the next cycle. The rabid Neocons in his party are gunning for him in PA because he voted for the bill.
The sooner Obama recognizes this, the sooner he can paint the picture for the American people of just who the GOP really is.
We can and will also finance any opponent of the uglies who are now tryint to take our man down.
Let' s just give Presidnet Obama the gift of not having so many Republicans to watch do the make believe Bipartisan dance..
I too share this hope with you. President Obama is showing true leadership, even in the face of the Republicans' abject refusal to be leaders themselves. His effort to engage the Republicans in a bipartisan approach to their and the nation's universal concerns (i.e. the economy) is honorable, in spite of their rejection, and those who suggest that he should be like them are, IMO, looking at it backwards. THEY'RE the ones who need to change, not President Obama. But even if they don't - which is unlikely that they will - he is not only not letting them stop him from going forward with his agenda, but the contrast between his statesmanship and their partisan politics-as-usual game is merely showing the American people who they are, and President Obama just looks better and better, and he's still winning! He's giving the Republicans enough rope to hang themselves, and that's exactly what they're doing!
We had them on Huffpo and people were reading, comparing and commenting on them.
It's also intriguing that people who had no chance to read the bill had so many fine print complaints.
That will get three good things done done.
1 make sure your congresscritter reads what he votes on.
2 tend to reduce the size of bills
3 waste their time so that they will get less done and stay out of our hair.