The GOP dances with disaster
It turns out that political obstructionism is addictive — as addictive, it seems, as cigarettes, heroin and making fun of Rush Limbaugh. Who knew? And who, for that matter, would have guessed that a major political party would become so enamored with the sheer joy of the act of obstruction that it would happily bet its very existence as a viable political player for the next 30-years on it.
Amazingly, though, the GOP appears ready to do just that.
The history of this addiction isn’t hard to trace: early glimmers appeared during Bill Clinton’s presidency, those heady days when presidential lies involved blowjobs instead of war, torture and the shredding of the constitution. Back then, GOP senators systematically stalled Clinton’s judicial nominations. It got so bad, in fact, that even ultraconservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist complained about the resulting high vacancy rate in the federal courts.
But Senate Republicans didn’t reach their full potential as obstructionists until after the 2006 congressional elections, when the Democrats took control of the Senate. Disinclined to give even a smidgen of weight to the clear desires of the voters, who had, after all, just handed them a staggering rebuke, Republicans fell head over heels in love with the filibuster (yeah, the very same filibuster they’d decried as the root of all evil back when they were in the majority).
Over the next two years, GOP led filibusters became standard operating procedure in the Senate, as common as Republican sex scandals. It worked like this: the Democratic House would pass a bill with relative ease, often with bipartisan support. When it went to the Senate, however, the Republicans would filibuster — again and again. And since the Democrats were in the majority by a mere whisker, with a 51-to-49 split (including the two independents caucusing with the Democrats), they had little luck in coming up with the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.
Even bills enjoying considerable bipartisan support in the Senate were filibustered to death. At times, it seemed the Republicans were filibustering for the pure joy of it.
And then the voters spoke — again. And once again, their message was anything but garbled. In a wholesale repudiation of just about everything Republican, they not only elected Barack Obama president, but swept Democrats into substantially increased majorities in both houses of Congress. In the Senate, assuming Al Frankin hangs on and you count Joe Lieberman, the Democrats now hold 59 seats, one short of a filibuster-proof majority.
So, surely, after two such massive drubbings, the remaining Senate Republicans must finally have learned their lesson, right?
But no — seemingly as obstructionist as ever, they now appear dead set on trying to scuttle Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. They deny it, of course — claiming they’re not trying to kill the bill, just to slow it down a little to make certain there’s enough oversight against wasteful government spending (where were they during the early days of the Iraq war?). But their ultimate goal is clear: to begin building public opposition to the bill, by pointing to examples of alleged “pork” spending. And the major media, predictably pro-Republican on economic issues, appears to be playing along.
Would they actually filibuster? One wouldn’t think so, given the politics of the situation and the fact the Democrats would need to attract only one or two Republican votes, but recent history suggests something else. It was, after all, only a few weeks ago that the Republicans used the filibuster to kill a proposed auto bailout bill. (They wanted a more union busting approach taken, which, they were no doubt pleased to see, materialized in the eventual Bush Administration bailout).
So it is just possible that the GOP actually will decide, as insane as it would be, to drive both itself and the country off the cliff in the mist of the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression. Maybe they really are that dumb.
Economists, liberals and conservatives alike, agree that we’re in for a long and painful recession — and that’s the optimistic view: the pessimists see us sliding into a full-fledged depression (something the optimists don’t rule out). People are already hurting badly in this country and no one — not a single expert I’m aware of — thinks we’ve come anywhere close to hitting bottom.
So, if given all this, the GOP thinks obstructing a popular new president’s recovery plan is good politics, well, good luck with that.
Republicans take comfort in poll results they believe show the public is skeptical of the wisdom of a huge federal package (although the polls show strong public support for Obama’s plan). They also take solace in the fact many Americans were skeptical of the wisdom of bailing out Detroit. They think this gives them an opening.
Sorry, guys, but it doesn’t matter.
When the economic shit hits the fan, fairly or not, voters tend to look to blame someone. And you can take it to the bank they aren’t going to blame themselves. If the Republicans are seen as playing politics in obstructing Obama’s efforts at economic recovery in the face of the current crisis, the party will be toast for a generation (if it isn’t already). And on one’s going to remember, or frankly give a damn, what the public opinion polls showed at the time they were doing the obstructing.
The GOP is dancing with disaster here. They just may end up married to it.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:46 am
Anyone named Saxby Chambliss is bound to do something stupid. He already has by smearing Max Cleland. Since that worked nicely among the Georgia Good Ole’ Boyz, he will be hell-bent-for-leather to do it again and again. He won, didnt he?! Lot of real smart folks down there in Georgia…….. Then, you have one of the Great Senate Idiots of all time, Inhofe. (I believe that’s his name.) This man lives and breathes to be destructive. Evidently, they enjoyed the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression in Oklahoma, because they elected this Fool. Let them eat dust, because this Jackass rejects global warming and anything that even hints at saving the environment. He is so reactionary, he makes Fascism look mild. I could continue naming names, but why bother. They are so enamored of themselves that bad breath is better than no breath at all. Attention is what they desire and demand. People who cant think beyond their guns and religion elect them; and praise their every malicious action. Until those people are down to their last moldy crust of bread, they will continue to support such men and women. Even then, they may gasp out their names with their last dying breath. “Saxby Chambliss is a damned fine man, by God!” Will Harry Reid find a way around them? Will pigs fly?