Obama Care: Unprincipled Republicans Deserve Blame, Too

Is it time for Republicans to up their game? Lindsey Graham thought the right thing to do was to go running to Obama to talk immigration reform during this debacle. And even now, John McCain is working and supporting people from Scott Brown to Carly Fiorina and others, to ensure the future of his already failed, so-called progressive GOP.

Especially helpful to Obama — and of very little use to the rest of us — are the detached and clueless leaders who make up the Republican establishment in Washington. Although they’d like to harness the enthusiasm for the tea party movement to help them win elections, they really don’t connect with that crowd because the very thing the protesters are angry about — the runaway spending, the irresponsible borrowing, the exponential growth of government, etc. — the Republican leaders had a hand in creating.

I'll say it's time for them to up their game. And while there remain significant differences between the two parties, said differences are not big enough. It's fine to point out that Republicans only used so-called "self-executing" rules on less controversial measures, they still used them to keep potentially embarrassing votes off their records. BS like that might be great for a bar room argument, it has nothing to do with precedent, the Constitution, or the rule of law.

At the Examiner, Mark Tapscott points out that when the Republican-controlled Congress used a “self-executing” rule very similar to the “Slaughter rule” to raise the debt ceiling in 2005, Rep. Louise Slaughter — along with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Henry Waxman — went to court to try to reverse it, arguing that it was a blatant violation of the Constitution’s procedure for passing legislation (art. I, sec. 7). The bad news for present purposes is that they lost the case.

For principles to matter, they have to matter all the time. That isn't the case in Washington, DC today. And it hasn't been the case for the Republicans, or the Democrats, for a very long time.

Comments

[neomom]

Uh Oh... You are starting to sound a little bit like.... Glenn Beck

[unseen]

all 535 of these idiots need removed. I am ready to throw out the few good with the bad. Anyone that is connected to DC needs to go. that includes the pollsters, the spin doctors. the staffers. we need to clean house so to speak.

[Ragspierre]

Dan, thought you and some of your readers might enjoy this...

http://hindenblog1.blogspot.com/

[richard mcenroe]

I keep saying this is a vote against incumbency this year. ALL these people have been there too long...