Republicans do want to use complaints about partisanship as a cudgel, but they have no plans of actually participating. An excellent example of this is the health care debate. Republicans complain about a lack of bipartisanship, but when Obama offers them a deal, they have nothing constructive to offer:
Where, they demanded, was the bipartisanship the President had promised? So, right there in the Cabinet Room, the President put a proposal on the table, according to two people who were present. Obama said he was willing to curb malpractice awards, a move long sought by Republicans that is certain to bring strong opposition from the trial lawyers who fund the Democratic Party.
What, he wanted to know, did the Republicans have to offer in return?
Nothing, it turned out. Republicans were unprepared to make any concessions, if they had any to make. [Time, via Think Progress]
No wonder the Democrats want to use budget reconciliation to pass a health care bill. It’s looking increasingly unlikely that the Republicans will decide to participate in lawmaking any time in the next four years, let alone actually vote for a Democratic bill.
You’re taking this blog a step closer to MDE.
I wish Obama would quit trying. It’s obvious they’re going to raise holy hell no matter what he does. Let’s make the crime fit the punishment, so to speak.
Go for major reforms: Single-Payer healthcare, restore tax levels of the top 1% to the pre-Reaganomics days, same sex marriage, gays in the military, ban all guns…
(jk, just gleeful at all the right-wing dander raised by that last one).
These people aren’t Republicans. They took over the party and appropriated the name but they aren’t Republicans. Many good old brands have been bought out and the products cheapened by the new owners who maintain the brand name only to profit briefly from the respect earned by the original owners.
“You’re taking this blog a step closer to MDE.”
The republican caucus has barely given one single vote to any important piece of legislation to cross Obama’s desk.
FUCK the republican caucus. Roll right over them. Put them in the dustbin of history.
I think that is the attitude that the Republicans had back in 1994. Look what it did for a civic national dialogue.
DTM,
I understand your concerns about the dangers of hubris but I am wondering why you think that Jeff’s observations are an example of this. It seems like the Republican leadership is doing what Jeff says they are doing with the goal of obstructing things for long enough that they can pin our economic problems on Obama.
Is it the suggestion that we use budget reconcilliation to get things done?
As Lojasmo suggests, we have a right to be angry and even a responsibility to not capitulate to these obstructionists. The danger would be if we steamroll through with a partisan rather than a pragmatic agenda. This is especially true with fiscal policy. The Democrats had better adopt a fiscally responsible approach to resolving this economic crisis or they will pay a heavy price down the line.