Mitch McCannel, Minority Leader of the Senate Republicans and John Boehner, Minority Leader of the House Republicans were of one mind today. They wanted to tattle on the Congressional Democrats. They addressed their remarks toward Obama – telling him that the Democratic Congress wasn’t being bipartisan. What they seem to mean is that the Democrats didn’t agree with them, weren’t listening to them. They sounded like school children telling on people on the playground.
But Obama says love your neighbors, so I’m going to try to figure out what they want [beside the obvious ego massage]. All I know right now is that they want John McCain’s version of the tax cuts as part of the stimulus package, and they want to micromanage the shovel-ready projects like refurbishing the National Mall. So that much is easy for me. I don’t want John McCain’s tax cuts, particularly now. I want to tax the rich, because they have [our] money. How hard is that? They have drained our coffers for eight years. That’s enough. And I think refurbishing our National Mall is a good idea and it will put people to work. The point of all of this is to put people to work who can’t find jobs. But tomorrow, I’m going to look at what else the Republicans want, just in case I’m missing the point.
I don’t think they’re representing their constituents or thinking about the country as a whole. They are representing an ideology, one that has put us where we are today. And, in case I haven’t made it clear, I disagree with that ideology. It created our financial crisis, and I’m sure I’m right about that. As much as I respect Obama’s willingness to try to bring them on board, I think we have to assume that they’ve chosen another path. They know that things are going to go to hell in a hand-basket no matter what we do, and they want to pin that on the Democrats as it happens. It’s a 2010/2012 strategy rather than a strategy based on governing. [See Stimulus in flux by Kagro X].
My guess is that Obama will keep trying. He’s got a way about him that makes that work. He doesn’t let himself get caught up in the moment. And I expect he’s got a Plan B for what he does if they continue to whine [which they will]. I claim that human-kind are born to whine. It’s the way babies get their parents to do what they want. Effective parents listen to some whining, but draw the lines at the right places at the right times. Watching Obama’s kids, I can see that he and Michelle know where to draw those lines. I expect that he’ll surprise all of us and either decrease the Republican whining over time or effectively put them into "time out." But it’s hard to listen to after the mess they’ve made of things in the last eight years. I wonder if they know that what a lot of us really want to do is send them to bad boy boot camp for an attitude adjustment [it’s not nice to pick on our young new teacher].
Not only did they tattle, but afterward they chirpily bragged to the press that Obama “didn’t defend the Democrats” when they complained. See, Daddy listened to US, and he’s going to spank those bad boys and Nancy.
As Henry Waxman says: They’re haven’t been able to adjust to their minority status.” They also don’t know that Obama was just not playing their game. Not defending the Dems doesn’t mean he agrees with the whiners. Just not playing that game.