There is an old saying: “Arrogance isn’t arrogance if you can back it up.”
That was the modus operandi for the national Republicans after their historic landslide win in 1994, when they advocated and later passed many points of the Contract With America, such as tax cuts, fiscal restraint, and a drive for Congress itself to become more accountable, more ethical, and more responsive to the people.
Power corrupts, however, and over the next twelve years, the Republicans consciously moved away from their platform and the traditional values that got them elected. They lost seats in almost every successive election, and in 2006 they were emphatically thrown out of power in both chambers. The electorate had shown that not only was it disgusted by the party’s move to the Left, but was fed up with all of the scandal, corruption, hubris and arrogance coming out of Washington. In essence, the Republicans abandoned the values that made them uniquely Republican, and in doing so, they took away any reason for their base to vote for them. In other words, excuse the grammar, they forgot where they came from.
One would think that after such a humiliating defeat, the party leaders and their advisors would have started from scratch. Common sense dictates that they would analyze their problems, devise meaningful solutions, regroup, and set out to seize the day. After all, if they presented a cohesive plan for America and stood as a unified party advocating their solution, they would stand at least a reasonable chance of retaking one, if not both, Houses of Congress and possibly retaining the White House.
That would be an incorrect thought, however, for no such intelligence exists in the Republican Congress, and apparently, no lessons have been learned.
It’s one matter if those in power exude arrogance, but things get accomplished. It’s quite another when the party out of power is still defiant in advocating its old ways, seemingly oblivious to the fact that its current mindset is exactly what drove them into the minority.
Is it aloofness? An “inside the beltway” mentality?
How about stupidity? That’s more like it.
Americans face many pressing issues on a daily basis, to the point where a large number of our citizens are experiencing real hardship. Maybe it’s a family that can no longer afford quality health care, or any health coverage at all. Perhaps it’s the manufacturing worker whose plant closed (can you say “auto” industry), or the white collar employee whose position was just outsourced to India. If these situations aren’t bad enough, these Americans are forced to watch their government—indeed, their tax dollars— going to pay for illegal immigrant’s health, education and welfare.
With all of these issues, what do the Republicans focus on, ad nauseum?
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s use of an Air Force plane for security purposes.
Not that she gets one. Just how big it is.
Sounds like the Republicans have male-deficiency issues.
Let’s get this straight.
The Republicans, the same party that was in charge of, and passed, immensely over bloated budgets and never saw a pork project it didn’t like during its time in power, are now complaining about “excessive government spending by the Democrats”, in particular the Pelosi airplane flap, even though the Speaker of the House had been authorized by Congress to use an Air Force plane after the September 11 attacks.
Why does she get such an aircraft? Because her position ranks her third in line for the Presidency of the United States.
Sounds like a good reason to me.
So what the Republicans are actually saying is that, of all the waste that is prevalent in government spending, the most egregious is Speaker Pelosi’s use of a bigger plane than that used by former Speaker Dennis Hastert, even though Hastert’s district is 2,000 miles closer to Washington.
That, and the fact that Republicans are worried about Pelosi possibly letting political contributors ride on the plane. Even though all passengers would pay the government coach rate.
The scandal!
This line of thinking, if one can even call it that, is akin to being valedictorian of summer school.
It just doesn’t work.
But the real issue here goes way beyond government spending, or whether the Pentagon leaked an out-of-context aircraft request from Rep. Pelosi, itself a gross violation of government security procedures in the name of political games.
The inexcusable action taking place is the Republican’s use of “national security” in a partisan, political manner. It is the height of hypocrisy.
All we have heard from Republicans and the Pentagon since September 11 is how no one should ever play politics with terrorism and national security issues. Period. It’s bad enough that they have overused that trite line for their own gain, attempting to quash debate and dissent from groups opposed to the Iraq War and the United State’s execution of the War on Terror.
But now, being in the minority, these same Republicans are hollering their bellicose rhetoric in an attempt to gain political points with their base by blasting Nancy Pelosi on “government waste”.
The biggest irony is that, not only doesn’t that tactic work with the great middle of the country, but it backfires with the base, too. Republican voters were smart enough to vote against their own in November. What makes the Republican leaders in Congress actually think anything has changed in the last three months?
Speaker Pelosi is two heartbeats away from ascending to the most powerful position in the world. Even though the President and Vice President rarely travel together and appropriate security measures are employed to ensure that, should the President be incapacitated, the VP takes control seamlessly, nothing can be taken for granted in the day and age we find ourselves. We are engaged in battle against people who will do anything necessary to destabilize the West, and, accordingly, all reasonable aspects of security must be maintained to see that America remains free, effective, and stable.
So the question remains: What in the name of John Wayne’s derrière are the Republicans doing?
The train left the station November 7, and the Republicans are still on the platform.
The Democrats couldn’t have scripted this any better themselves.
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