The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank nails a divide now emerging in the Republican party — one that isn’t necessarily moderates versus liberals or Palin-faction versus non-Palin faction. It’s more profound:
The lame-duck session of Congress has introduced Americans to the three-party system of government: the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Petulant Party.
The eight founding fathers of the Petulants took the stage Tuesday morning in the Senate TV studio to provide an update on their latest cause: The defeat of the nuclear arms treaty with Russia. The New START treaty has the enthusiastic support of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the rest of the top military brass, not to mention all six living secretaries of state who served in Republican administrations.
But the Petulants do not care about Republican wise men. They do not care about the wishes of the uniformed military. What they care about is preserving the sanctity of . . . Christmas vacation?
“The fact that we’re doing this under the cover of Christmas,” complained Sen. Jim DeMint (P-S.C.), “is something to be outraged about.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (P-S.C.) was outraged. “Here we are, the week of Christmas, about to pass potentially a treaty,” he protested.
And the leader of the group, Sen. Jon Kyl (P-Ariz.), is already on record saying the Democrats’ legislative agenda amounts to “disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians.”
So it has come to this: Members of the Petulant Party want to stop the START treaty (and block a bill that would help Ground Zero first responders pay medical bills) because they wish to get home to their figgy pudding. This might be called playing the Christmas card.
And further down:
So powerful has been the Petulants’ desire to deny Obama a news conference that they defied the recommendation of Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (a Bush administration holdover) in their unsuccessful defense on Saturday of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on openly gay service members. And, separately, the Petulants’ efforts to prevent the Sept. 11 bill from coming to the floor earned labels such as “disgrace” and “national shame” from the usually friendly hosts at Fox News.
Quizzed about the Sept. 11 bill on Fox News Sunday, Kyl belittled the “emotional appeal” made by the first responders.
But Kyl was the one making an emotional appeal on Tuesday. He started his START press conference with a complaint that Democrats took “a very partisan approach to this treaty.”
That must be how they won the support of Colin Powell, Jim Baker and Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Other Petulants complained that Democrats were trying to “rush it through” (John Thune, S.D.) or “jamming the Congress” (Graham).
This “rush” lasted eight months and included extensive hearings before three Senate committees.
And his ending:
On Tuesday, enough Republicans said “yes” to send the treaty to likely ratification on Wednesday. But the Petulant Party is only getting organized. As McConnell told Politico this week: “If they think it’s bad now, wait ’til next year.
There’s more but this must be said:
Which leads to this question:
Are seeing in this series of lame duck votes a portion of the Republican party blowing their election victories already by showing political hubris? These folks have been on the losing side of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (polls showed most Americans support it), could be on the losing side of the START Treaty (polls show most American support it), and could be on the losing side of providing health funds to 911 first responders (polls show Americans overwhelmingly support it).
Are they listening too much to Rush Limbaugh, who never passed up a chance to urge his party to oppose Barack Obama and not work with the White House or the Democrats? Are they misjudging? Or are they onto something (so far polls on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, 911 First Responder help, and the START Treaty do not show they are)?
It’s difficult to see how being on the losing side in so many polls and votes is going to help the GOP build winning coalitions for 2012 — even with reported boosts from the census.
To be sure, if these votes came up in January with the GOP controlling the House and having more Senate seats, they might have gone differently. But polling on most of these issues are on the side of the White House, Democrats and those Republicans who don’t feel “compromise” is a filthy word.
Sarah Palin’s TV show will reportedly be picked up. But with this kind of attitude clearly coming across now will the GOP be picked up in 2012? If it’s on the losing side of polls in 2011 with an ascending Barack Obama even with Congressional majorities it could be heading into troubled waters.
The irony: in 2008 John McCain got the nomination but many felt he really didn’t reflect the party even though he headed the ticket. Today, with the new, petulant, angry, opposition-most-of-the-time McCain on the losing side of key votes in the lameduck Congress, the GOP and the new, bitter 2010 McCain now seem firmly joined at the right hip.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.