Forgive the horrible pun, but I couldn't resist (and I'm also surprised I haven't seen that used anywhere else in print; the press is usually all over that).
In any case, the announcement this week that centrist Democratic Senator Evan Bayh would not seek reelection was another blow to Democratic control in Congress and, to a slightly lesser extent, the President. On the one hand, I applaud Senator Bayh for bringing some more attention to the bitter partisanship in Congress and not simply laying the blame for it on the Republicans. On the other hand, I wish that he (and other Senators) would do more of that as part of their ordinary discourse and not just a retirement speech.
Remember how so many of us Obama supporters hoped that he'd help usher in a new era of "post-partisanship"? How long ago that seems now. It's not that I'm disillusioned with Obama; I don't think he deserves much of the blame for this. His only real mistake in this regard was in ceding too much control of the domestic agenda to Congress. As it turned out, it was akin to giving a 6-year-old the keys to the family car. The results were fairly predictable. But I can't blame Obama for that because every strategist and pundit agreed that the thing he needed to avoid above all else was making the Clinton mistake of dictating a plan to Congress without their involvement and having them revolt (again, like a bunch of 6-year-olds).
So I guess the lesson is that you shouldn't trust Congress with anything you wouldn't trust a 6-year-old to do and, in general, it's about all you can do to keep them in matching shoes and from eating paste.
Anyway. so I don't blame Obama (much). But I can certainly blame Congress and there's a whole lot of blame to go around there. The Republicans established early on that they would take up the mantle of obstructionists. As has been repeatedly said by me and many others, that's good politics but bad governing. If you're the majority, the way to combat that is to project the image that you're acting conciliatory but the other side is spurning you at every turn. The olive branch that's being set on fire. But the Democrats did themselves no favors in this regard. Years of frustration from 12-years of a Republican ruled Congress still seethed below the surface, and the Democrats basically acted like the Republicans would be forced to go along with their agenda or would be rendered irrelevant. Well, if you're going to have that attitude, you'd better be sure you can hold your party together to pass your agenda. And of course they couldn't (didn't).
The other thing they couldn't do was sell any of their (limited) ideas to the American public. I challenge anyone to give me a good example of a Democratic Congressional member going on the offensive against a Republican. There are a couple, but they are nearly universally used as a response to a Republican attack. There's a good quote from Democratic strategist Paul Begala (in a variation of an old Patton quote), "The purpose of a campaign is not to respond to every one of your opponent's attacks, it's to make the other son-of-a-bitch respond to your attacks." And the Democratic Congress has just done an abysmal job at this. You can only deflect so much before some attacks get through, and if you're not able to get any in yourself, well, as one of my favorite comic strips once said (in lampooning sports commentators), "It's very hard to win if you score less points. Even with a good defense."
So to bring this back on topic, it's lamentable to be losing another centrist - regardless of party affiliation. It's yet another step in the continuing polarization of our government. Governing by ideology instead of practicality is just simply not going to allow us to meet the challenges we need to as a nation and as human beings. And the sounds you hear on CSPAN will sound more and more like Nero's fiddling.
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Case in point. Today in my inbox from Gov Tim Kaine:
"At least 116 Republican governors, senators, and representatives have spent the past year railing against the Recovery Act, while simultaneously requesting funds to create jobs in their districts and taking credit for projects at ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
They know the Recovery Act is creating jobs, but they think attacking it will bring them victory in the 2010 elections.
Not so fast. We're preparing to meet every hypocritical attack with press conferences in states across the nation and a rapid-response program to fact check every lie."
It's the last sentence that really gets me. A strategy built on reacting and defending. If you concentrate on selling the message of what the stimulus plan has accomplished you won't need to respond to their attacks. Every ribbon-cutting ceremony should be talked about and touted till they're blue in the face and Americans are sick of hearing about it. And, probably more importantly, any video of Republicans at these ribbon-cutting ceremonies should be up on YouTube instantly and again talked about and touted relentlessly. Don't TALK about Republicans being hypocrites; SHOW it and don't wait for an attack to do it.
"Delay is preferable to error" - Thomas Jefferson.
I think it's interesting how there's a contemporary belief that government needs to constantly be doing things, and passing laws, and getting things done. And if the minority party chooses to take the contrary position, that it's obstructionist. And that somehow, "obstructionist" became as dirty a word as "liberal".
personally, I applaud the obstructionists, whatever their motivation. I wish there were more.
If tomorrow, someone (whatever party) put forward a bill that stated that on alternate Wednesdays everyone should get a free hot dog, I'd hope that someone would fight to block that bill. And I like hot dogs. Especially free ones.
"Doing stuff is overrated. Like Hitler. He did a lot. But don't we all wish he woulda just stayed home and gotten stoned?" - Dex, The Tao of Steve
"...fact check every lie"
ROTFL
"There's not another single piece of legislation that needs to be passed in the next two years for this president. In fact, if Congress wants to come together, adjourn and leave, it's alright with us. We don't need them."
That was then-chief of staff John Sununu in 1990.
That type of philosophical opposition to legislating I can at least respect, but that's not what's going on now.
John McCain and Scott Brown did not campaign on "let's get to Wasghington and do nothing." They may advocate for smaller government, but they certainly don't advocate for less legislating.
Mike, what I'd like to see from you and other Republicans is some consistency besides "whatever the Democrats propose, we're against". If you think that Congress does too much, that's fine, but then you can't turn around and criticize them as a "do-nothing Congress." I remember quite specifically you calling 2007 a "wasted year" because the Democratic Congress hadn't passed anything subtantive.
Similarly, I'm tired of the criticism of Obama that he's "done nothing" followed by cries that he "has us on the road to socialism." I may not know much about physics, but I know that an object can't be both inert and in motion at the same time, so pick one. And along the lines of socialism, I'm sick to death of the criticism of any particular progressive tax code change as "socialism" while at the same time no one is proposing a flat tax, and of course any government-run health care is "socialized medicine" but no one is proposing abolishing Medicard, which already IS socialized medicine.
What I *think* you were getting at in your post was that you believe that if the Democrats pass any of their legislation that it will be bad for the country, as thus you'd rather them not pass anything.
I would also argue that motivations are very important. I think it probably would have been a good idea to check out Bin Laden's motivations before we armed him to fight the Russians, and it also would have been a good idea to examine Saddam's motivations before we armed him to fight Iran.
And I'll be sure to remind you how much you like the obstructionists the next time the Republicans are in power in Congress which, if trends continue, may be pretty soon.
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