Pounding square pegs into round holes
Yesterday, Waldo posted a story about how the Virginian Republican Party is "on the verge of a meltdown".
Today, The Washington Post has printed a story about the meltdown occurring at the national level in Congress.
"For years, the Bush White House and its allies on Capitol Hill seemed like one of the most unified teams Washington had ever seen, passing most of Bush's agenda with little dissent. Privately, however, many lawmakers felt underappreciated, ignored and sometimes bullied by what they regarded as a White House intent on running government with little input from them. Often it was to pass items -- an expanded federal role in education under the No Child Left Behind law and an expensive prescription drug benefit under Medicare -- that left conservatives deeply uneasy."
President Bush for most of his time in the White House has a complacent Congress to do his bidding. Anything Bush wanted, Bush received. Want tax cuts for the wealthy and oil companies? No problem. Drill into our pristine wilderness for oil? No problem. Invade a country on the word of the President? No problem. Big federal mandates that cost a lot of money? No problem.
The problem is that with "quid pro quo" you have to get something in return for your support. Republicans were led to believe that if you do what Bush wanted, checks and balances be damned, this country would be fine. Congress is starting to realize that Bush is like a Burger King customer, he wants to have it his way or no way at all. For passing everything that Bush has wanted, Republicans in Congress have received back a bloated budget deficit, a mismanaged war, and oh yeah their precious jobs. That's it. They have no dignity, no respect left.
It shocked the hell out of Bush when the deal over the Dubai ports fell through and Congress did not back him. He thought he could flex his veto muscle and show Congress who was boss. It didn't work. Now Bush has been left to scramble to see what support he still has.
Now that Republicans in Congress figure that Bush has little to no clout, they have crawled out from their shells and want to fight back...why? Could the fact that there is an election in eight months be the real motive behind the Republicans new found backbone. Or have they figured out they sold their ideological souls to Bush to guarantee their jobs and feel bad about it? I'll take the former...it's the cynic in me.
Today, The Washington Post has printed a story about the meltdown occurring at the national level in Congress.
"For years, the Bush White House and its allies on Capitol Hill seemed like one of the most unified teams Washington had ever seen, passing most of Bush's agenda with little dissent. Privately, however, many lawmakers felt underappreciated, ignored and sometimes bullied by what they regarded as a White House intent on running government with little input from them. Often it was to pass items -- an expanded federal role in education under the No Child Left Behind law and an expensive prescription drug benefit under Medicare -- that left conservatives deeply uneasy."
President Bush for most of his time in the White House has a complacent Congress to do his bidding. Anything Bush wanted, Bush received. Want tax cuts for the wealthy and oil companies? No problem. Drill into our pristine wilderness for oil? No problem. Invade a country on the word of the President? No problem. Big federal mandates that cost a lot of money? No problem.
The problem is that with "quid pro quo" you have to get something in return for your support. Republicans were led to believe that if you do what Bush wanted, checks and balances be damned, this country would be fine. Congress is starting to realize that Bush is like a Burger King customer, he wants to have it his way or no way at all. For passing everything that Bush has wanted, Republicans in Congress have received back a bloated budget deficit, a mismanaged war, and oh yeah their precious jobs. That's it. They have no dignity, no respect left.
It shocked the hell out of Bush when the deal over the Dubai ports fell through and Congress did not back him. He thought he could flex his veto muscle and show Congress who was boss. It didn't work. Now Bush has been left to scramble to see what support he still has.
Now that Republicans in Congress figure that Bush has little to no clout, they have crawled out from their shells and want to fight back...why? Could the fact that there is an election in eight months be the real motive behind the Republicans new found backbone. Or have they figured out they sold their ideological souls to Bush to guarantee their jobs and feel bad about it? I'll take the former...it's the cynic in me.
posted by Kevin | 8:19 AM
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