The Republican Party’s Strategy for Regaining Power
Act like nothing changed on November 4. Act like Barack Obama did not score a huge win on Election Day, like Democrats did not pick up all those seats in Congress, like the American people did not resoundingly reject Republican governing philosophy on Election Day:
Republicans wrapped up their retreat Friday by signaling they are losing patience with President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) criticized the new administration on Friday, saying it had promised to reach out to Republicans on the Capitol Hill, but then offered an economic recovery package that included few, if any, proposals from the minority party.
Romney, who helped write the House Republican substitute voted down Wednesday afternoon, said enough of the rhetoric, it’s time for Obama to act.
“Meeting with someone is not negotiating, meeting with someone to say ‘here’s my plan, take it or leave it,’ that is not negotiating, that is not reaching out,” Romney told reporters after his lunchtime speech.
Emphasis mine — developing amnesia about what’s been going on in Congress for the last eight years is another piece of the strategy:
The chuzpah is truly mind-boggling:
1. Obama has bent over backwards to engage congressional Republicans — up to and including watering down his own stimulus bill — but they’ve had nothing constructive to offer, and have demonstrated no interest in cooperation.
2. When Republicans were in charge, their ideas failed on a catastrophic level. Now, as Obama tries to clean up the GOP’s mess, they’re demanding that Democrats embrace their failed ideas.
3. Voters saw the results of the Republican economic agenda, and handed the GOP a series of devastating national defeats. The failed, losing side usually doesn’t get to drive the national policy agenda.
4. When Republicans define “bipartisanship,” they describe a process in which they get what they want, reality be damned.
5. Republican arguments throughout the stimulus debate have fallen far short of coherence. GOP lawmakers have effectively substituted solipsism for lucidity, with arguments such as the Democratic drive to “turn the United States into France,” and the notion that Bush’s economic policies were a sterling success until Democrats took over Congress.
And yet, when Republicans get together to tell one another how right they are, they conclude that they’re “losing patience” with Obama.
Tags: Republican freaks
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