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Many people, if not most, might be rather confused by what is going on in Washington, DC these days. The simple question is this: why don’t they grow up and do the job they were elected, and are being paid, to do? How did we get into such a mess? If you have asked yourself these questions and others, don’t feel left out and alone. Right now, Washington itself is confused by this giant, stinking mess that threatens, daily, to get a lot worse. Most, if not all, the reporters, smarty pants commentators, Senators and House members combined are asking themselves how this happened, even though no one should really be surprised.
The Republicans wanted to paint Obama into a corner and they have found, much to their disappointment, that it is they, themselves, who are in that corner. They said for months that they wouldn’t raise the national debt ceiling and now they are stuck trying to defend what they have been saying all along. The tea party Republicans in the House are also completely committed to not raising taxes, with 230 House members out of 435 having signed pledges NEVER to raise taxes for any reason. The Republican “leadership” of the House seems to barely be in charge of anything, except how to get back and forth to meetings at the White House. On top of that, there are signs that the Speaker, Boehner, and Majority Leader, Cantor, are not singing from the same hymnal. Maybe they aren’t even attending the same church.
The Republicans are under estimating Obama and they are underestimating the crisis they might cause if they refuse to raise the debt ceiling. Why Obama? Because, in the 2 1/2 years he’s been in office, they have seen very little backbone from the man. I recall vividly as the health care change mess rolled on for months that Obama called selected congressmen to the White House to “debate” the issue. Obama acted more like a professor conducting a seminar, listening to each and every ridiculous statement as though it had merit. When he had the chance to cut a congressman or two down to size with a few short words, he didn’t take it. He let them roll him over.
One such exchange was with Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia who became the House Majority leader earlier this year when the Republicans took over. Obama is paying the price now for not standing then, or anytime since then, and showing the small minded members of Congress who’s boss.
Here is a report, from the NY Times, about an exchange between the two that took place Wednesday, 7.13.11, as the sides struggle to make a deal on the debt ceiling:
Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, said he raised the idea of taking what savings could be achieved now “roughly $1.4 trillion” and then having additional votes to raise the debt limit again before the elections in November 2012, with Republicans ultimately seeking a total of at least $2.4 trillion in cuts with no tax increases.
At this, Mr. Cantor said, the president “got very agitated, seemingly.” Mr. Cantor quoted the president as saying: “Eric, don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people with this.”
Then, Mr. Cantor said, “He shoved back and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow and walked out.
“I was a little taken aback,”Mr. Cantor added.
Democrats said that Mr. Obam’s departure was not abrupt, but that he had forcefully made a case that Republicans had been unwilling to compromise. “Enough’s enough,” one Democrat familiar with the talks quoted Mr. Obama as saying.
All of this reminds me of the underestimating the Republicans did when they impeached Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Some key Republicans, including Bill Armey of Texas, actually thought Clinton would cave in, probably resign the presidency, but certainly would not fight back. How wrong they were.
The Republicans in the House are drunk on power and the new Republicans are dumb to politics and need, the necessity, for compromise in a nation that consists of 50 different states, dozens of ethic backgrounds, and many varied economic needs. It is impossible to have a large nation, government by some sort of democratic consensus, and not have compromise. It can’t be done.
During his first year or so in office, Obama and his team were also drunk with the power and glory of what they had won. Those days are long since past. The new Republicans in the House actually think that they, and they alone, won the elections of 2010, discounting the 300 to 500 million dollars that poured into organized campaigns to undermine Obama and the Democrats.
Depending on your point of view, the Obama presidency has, from the start, been not a show of strength but a display of weakness. The blood thirsty hounds of Washington, from the start-up House members to old bulls in the Senate, sense weakness the same way a shark can smell blood in the water. They hunt down weakness and attack it from every angle.
Often when it is too late, presidents decide they have no choice but to fight back. A poor president is something the American public can live with; a weak president is something the public can never forgive. Obama probably has not yet crossed that divide in the public mind, but the idea of him as a weak president who favors cooperation over confrontation, even when it hurts his own party, is fairly firm in DC.
It is impossible to say right now where all of this might end, but I am certain of one thing: when the Republicans wake up, they are going to have one hell of a hang over and it is not going to be pretty.
Doug Terry, 7.14.11
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