Comments on: Is Bipartisanship Evaporating On Obama’s Economy Stimulus Plan?

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:03:21 +0000

It was because…
A) a good percentage of Dems agreed with the President's war policy
B) the rest bought into a false argument framed by Bush that cutting off funding would leave the troops defenseless on the battlefield

What you're floating is a conspiracy theory.

By: superdestroyer

superdestroyer — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:02:55 +0000

Chriswww,

What Pelosi and Reid were unable to bring themselves to do is to vote down the Defense Budget and force the Bush Administration to get out or Iraq. Since that would have caused the DoD to lay of 100,000's of civil servants. If Pelosi and Reid were deferential to anyone, it was to the public sector employee unions. We high morals about IRaq were opposite a core Democratic constituency, the constituency won.

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:37:36 +0000

SD,
You do remember that the last batch of Republicans in Congress put more holds and more filibusters on legislation than ever before? Republicans are certainly welcome to continue that level of obstruction, but let's not pretend they're borrowing from the Democratic playbook.

If anything, Pelosi, Reid, etc., were too deferential to an unpopular president, and now our civil liberties and treasury are exhausted as a result.

By: superdestroyer

superdestroyer — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:48:11 +0000

The Republicans should follow the Pelosi doctrine and always vote against whatever the Democrats are proposing. However, the Republicans should be able to do what the Democrats were unable to do and ask hard question. Where is the $850 billion coming from? How does stilumus work with the current federal acquisition regulations? Are the Democrats going to maintain open borders and unlimited immigration policies while starting up government works programs?

By: GreenDreams

GreenDreams — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:50:04 +0000

“bipartisanship” is what Republicans pay homage to only when Dems are in power. When they lead, it's “with us or against us”. What bull !

For all the righties like SD chastising the Dems for not bending over to cooperate with THE LOSERS, my 2 cents worth: Screw bipartisanship. The GOP had its chance to show us their stuff. And their stuff STINKS.

By: elrod

elrod — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:22:29 +0000

Superdestroyer,
Incompetence does not necessarily mean not bipartisan. One can be a hardcore partisan and incompetent. See Delay, Tom. Frist, Bill.

As for the larger point: elections have consequences. McCain made tax cuts a central part of a campaign that just ended. His view lost. We had a fair airing of that debate and it's time we push the Democratic version – more spending and less tax cuts. If the American people don't like it in 2010, or think it's ineffective, they can throw the bums out and give the Republicans another try. It's quite simply.

By: superdestroyer

superdestroyer — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:41:07 +0000

If the Democrats were interested in bipartisanship, they would get rid of Pelosi. She has been shown to be incompetent and unable to lead. Remember the votes on the wall street bailout where Pelosi failed to do a head count and wanted people to vote on legislation that they had not read. In 2004-2205, Pelosi insist on zero cooperation between Republicans and Democrats in hopes of winnng a majority. Now that she is in charge she wants to still be able to blame the Republicans.

I guess Pelosi forgot the first rule of leadership is when in charge, be in charge.

By: Silhouette

Silhouette — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:35:46 +0000

I think this online accountability has got the GOP spooked. They know if they rebel against stuff geared to help the now suffering working poor…the multitude (ironically) of their previous base,. they risk being replaced by candidates more openly helpful to the working poor…the party that has been all along (family voting traditions were so helpful pre-internet).

Now PERFORMANCE instead of promises will be the thing that gets votes. Oh, my, the republicans have no choice but to comply. They are in a very unusual position these days..