Day: February 15, 2010

The Republican Hypocrisy: Is It Not An Embarrassment?

Ronald Leave a comment

The Republican party in Congress is showing itself to be totally hypocritical to the extreme!

The GOP refused to support the economic stimulus bill, but is now taking credit for any projects that are taking place in their districts.

The Republicans in the Senate, at least some of them including John McCain, supported originally the idea of a deficit commission to deal with the national debt, and then voted against their own proposal!

The Republicans in both houses complained that they were not being consulted by President Obama on the health care bill, and they insisted that such negotiations must be televised on C Span. Now they seem to be trying to avoid the upcoming White House conference on health care, and feel that televising it will be promoting political theater!

These are among the many examples of total Republican hypocrisy, even by such senators, besides John McCain, as Kay Bailey Hutchison, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins. A lot of it is due to pure politics, to win races such as Hutchison for Governor in Texas and McCain for Senator in Arizona.

What is more important than anything apparently is politics and winning races or keeping their seats, than principle and doing what is best for the country.

It is ironic that the Tea Party people seem more angry at Democrats than Republicans, even though Democrats are attempting to bring change and reform to the nation, while Republicans, who messed up the economy when they controlled Congress, are still demonstrating no interest in doing anything to cooperate in the midst of an economic crisis.

Senator Evan Bayh Leaving Congress, Condemning Its Paralysis

Ronald Leave a comment

It was a sad moment today when Indiana Democratic Senator Evan Bayh, a moderate liberal, announced he would not seek re-election after twelve years in the Senate, out of frustration and anger at the intransigence and paralysis that Congress has developed into during the past few years, and its basic inability to get anything done for the country.

Bayh may yet run for Governor again in Indiana, as he was in that office in the 1990s before going to the Senate. He indicated his desire to do public service for the people, but sees the legislative branch as in total disarray and gridlock, which disgusts him.

While claiming that the extreme left and the extreme right were both responsible for the disaster that Congress has become, Bayh did make clear that the final straw was when seven members (Republicans), who had agreed to work toward creation of a commission to deal with deficit spending and the national debt, ended up voting against the legislation they had co-sponsored!

This forced President Obama’s hand, making him create such a commission by executive order.

It is therefore clear that it is the far right, and really the Republican party, which has destroyed any camaraderie in the Senate, as they prefer the failure of the Obama Presidency over what is good for the country.

When a party wins control, they are entitled to operate the government by their ideas, but with the occasional cooperation and support of opposition party members, but that is not the case now, and the Senate filibuster has become totally destructive, with more use or threat of use of the filibuster in the past 14 months than in any past period, including the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s.

So we are losing top people like Evan Bayh, and one has to wonder will we be fortunate enough to have new senators on the level of quality that Bayh represented.

This is a low moment in Senate history, with good people deciding to bow out, and mediocrity reigning supreme! 🙁